95 flood insurance claims·$852,506 paid·5 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 Doniphan County, Kansas. 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.
Flash flooding and river flooding from heavy rainfall and snowmelt shape the flood risk profile in Doniphan County, Kansas, backed by 13 flash flood events and 8 general flood events recorded over the last 30 years in the NOAA Storm Events Database.
Significant historical impacts include the March 2019 event, when heavy rain and melting Northern Plains snowpacks triggered major flooding along the Missouri River, worsened by levee failures. Continuous heavy precipitation sustained this major river flooding through April, May, and June of 2019, keeping parts of the floodplain inundated for weeks.
Property owners in low-risk or unshaded zones should pay close attention to historical insurance data. Federal records show 57 claims in Zone X_UNSHADED with an average payout of $13,995 and an average recorded water depth of 6 inches, alongside 38 claims in Zone X averaging a $5,211 payout and an average recorded water depth of 1 inch.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
Nearly all of Doniphan County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
57 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 4 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 2011, with 59 claims and $119,142 paid, the year of 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.
4 NOAA storm reports from Doniphan County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Kansas flood stories →
22 federal disaster declarations since 1967, 5 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Jun 26, 2024 |
| Severe Storms And Straight Line Winds | Dec 15, 2021 |
| Tornadoes And Flooding | May 9, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, Flooding,landslides,and Mudslides | Apr 28, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Oct 4, 2018 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | May 4, 2015 |
| Flooding | Jun 1, 2011 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, And Tornadoes | Jun 7, 2010 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
21 since 1996: 13 flash floods and 8 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Mar 13, 2019 | $100,000 |
| Flood | May 1, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Jun 1, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Apr 1, 2019 | — |
| Flash Flood | Sep 13, 2016 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 25, 2015 | — |
| Flood | Oct 9, 2014 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 4, 2014 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Mar 13, 2019. Several months of heavy snow across the Northern Plains set the stage for a significant and catastrophic flooding event when temperatures warmed and heavy rain fell across Nebraska and the Dakotas. While the more significant damage occurred across eastern Nebraska several counties along the Missouri River in parts of northeast Kansas saw some high impacts as well. Numerous locations along the Missouri River receiv…
Flood · May 1, 2019. Heavy late winter and spring precipitation, mixed with a loaded snow pack caused the Missouri River to flood in March. Consistent heavy rains continued the Missouri River flooding into and through May. Some locations along the Missouri River were in major flood for several weeks as heavy rains continued.
Flood · Jun 1, 2019. Heavy late winter and spring precipitation, mixed with a loaded snow pack caused the Missouri River to flood in March. Consistent heavy rains continued the Missouri River flooding into and through June. Some locations along the Missouri River were in major flood for several weeks as heavy rains continued. While the flooding continued through June, there was some gradual and steady improvement across the Missouri R…
Flood · Apr 1, 2019. The flooding that began in mid March along the Missouri River continued through April and into May. Some areas experienced record flooding from this event, and several levees broke within the time span of this event.
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 Doniphan 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.