121 flood insurance claims·$6.2M paid·7 federal flood & hurricane disasters
Share of the whole county outline, rivers and lakes included; parts FEMA hasn’t mapped count as zero.
Shaded areas are FEMA’s mapped flood hazard zones in and around Mills County, Iowa. Zoomed out they are simplified; at street level the map switches to FEMA’s exact layer. Tap anywhere to check that spot, or search an address above.
River flooding and flash flooding from storms dominate the flood history of Mills County, Iowa, with NOAA data recording 26 flood events and 6 flash flood events over the last 30 years. Recent impacts include major Missouri River flooding that kept sections of Interstate 29 closed into the first week of July 2024, as well as historic flooding in March 2019 caused by a bomb cyclone that melted remaining snow cover and dropped up to 2.5 inches of rain over frozen ground.
National Flood Insurance Program records show varying claim distributions across zones. Zone A accounts for 54 claims with an average payout of $14,882 and an average recorded water depth of 7 inches. Zone X shaded recorded 30 claims with an average payout of $72,839 and an average water depth of 8 inches. Zone X unshaded saw 12 claims with an average payout of $44,775 and an average water depth of 16 inches, while Zone X standard recorded 23 claims with the highest average payout at $225,625 and an average water depth of 8 inches.
Homeowners and real estate agents with properties near the Missouri River, along major transportation corridors like Interstate 29, and across all mapped flood zones should pay the closest attention to these risks.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
44% of Mills County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
96 NFIP claims with a recorded rated flood zone, 1978 to date. The zone is the one FEMA used to rate that policy, which may not match today’s map. Source: OpenFEMA NFIP claims.
In flood insurance claims here that reported a flood depth, the average was 9 inches.
Drawn to scale against an 80-inch door. Even a few inches soaks flooring, the bottom of the drywall and anything plugged in near the floor.
Average of the depths reported on claims (zero and implausible values left out); FEMA’s record doesn’t say exactly where each depth was measured. Source: OpenFEMA NFIP claims.
The worst year was 2019, with 31 claims and $5.5M paid, the year of Severe Storms and Flooding.
Bar height is scaled by square root so ordinary years stay visible next to the worst one. NFIP claims by year of loss. Source: OpenFEMA.
17 NOAA storm reports from Mills County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Iowa flood stories →
20 federal disaster declarations since 1965, 7 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms And Tornadoes | Apr 26, 2024 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes | Dec 15, 2021 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Mar 12, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Jun 3, 2014 |
| Flooding | May 25, 2011 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, And Tornadoes | Jun 1, 2010 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 25, 2008 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, And Tornadoes | May 5, 2007 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
32 since 1996: 6 flash floods and 26 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Aug 10, 2025 | $97,000 |
| Flood | Jun 24, 2024 | — |
| Flood | Jul 1, 2024 | — |
| Flood | May 29, 2019 | — |
| Flood | May 28, 2019 | — |
| Flash Flood | Mar 16, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Mar 15, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Apr 1, 2019 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Aug 10, 2025. A powerful line of thunderstorms, bringing with it a broad swath of damaging winds, swept across eastern Nebraska and western Iowa on the morning of August 10, 2025. This episode of severe weather was responsible for numerous reports of wind gusts exceeding 60 mph, significant structural damage, and tragically, one fatality. The thunderstorms developed as a powerful low-pressure system moved across the northern Gr…
Flood · Jun 24, 2024. A series of shortwave troughs traversing the northern CONUS brought unsettled weather to the area for the end of June. On the 21st, a stationary front was draped across northeast Nebraska into Iowa. Ahead of one of the aforementioned shortwave troughs, several rounds of strong thunderstorms developed near this frontal zone and moved across northeast Nebraska. At 8 pm on the 21st, radar imagery showed training thun…
Flood · Jul 1, 2024. At the beginning of July, river flooding was still ongoing along portions of the Missouri River extending from east-central Nebraska/southwest Iowa to the southern Nebraska border. Most of the length of the river crested at the end of June, so the greatest impacts are addressed in June StormData. However, sections of I-29 and the I-29/I680 junction remained closed through the first week of July as flood waters rec…
Flood · May 29, 2019. Flooding continued along the Missouri River through the month of May. Increased flood levels prompted the closure of Interstate 29 once again, from Highway 34 southward to the Missouri Border, and from I680/29 split northward to the I680/80 split. Gavins Point Dam releases were increased from 55,000 cfs to 75,000 cfs by the end of the month.
National Weather Service narratives, lightly trimmed. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Every colour on the map above is a place on this drawing: where the ground sits relative to the flood FEMA plans for.
If a building in Mills County is in a high-risk zone (A or V) and its mortgage comes from a federally regulated or insured lender, or is federally backed, flood insurance is required.
Outside those zones it is optional, and often worth having: from 2014 to 2024 nearly one-third of NFIP claims came from outside the high-risk Special Flood Hazard Area. Since Risk Rating 2.0, NFIP premiums are set for each building, so the only reliable price is a quote: FloodSmart.gov or a local agent.