1 flood insurance claims·$0 paid·1 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 Harper 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 from severe summer thunderstorms dominates the flood risk profile in Harper County. Over the last 30 years, the NOAA Storm Events Database records 23 flash flood events alongside 16 general flood events. Severe weather outbreaks have repeatedly threatened the region, such as prolonged severe thunderstorms in May 2019 that generated a combination of flash floods, large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes. Additional powerful storms struck parts of Central and South-Central Kansas in June 2019, producing damaging winds reaching 80 miles per hour and widespread flash flooding.
Federal Emergency Management Agency records show minimal historical National Flood Insurance Program claims activity, limited to a single claim in the unshaded Zone X reporting an average payout of zero dollars and an average recorded water depth of zero inches. Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists evaluating property risk in Harper County should pay the closest attention to locations susceptible to sudden flash flooding during severe thunderstorm events.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
15 NOAA storm reports from Harper County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Kansas flood stories →
21 federal disaster declarations since 1967, 1 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Jun 3, 2025 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, Flooding,landslides,and Mudslides | Apr 28, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | May 4, 2015 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Jul 22, 2013 |
| Snowstorm | Feb 20, 2013 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Apr 14, 2012 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes | Apr 25, 2009 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, And Tornadoes | Sep 11, 2008 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
39 since 1996: 23 flash floods and 16 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | May 27, 2019 | — |
| Flood | May 25, 2019 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 22, 2019 | — |
| Flash Flood | Oct 3, 2019 | $100 |
| Flood | Oct 8, 2018 | $100 |
| Flood | May 11, 2017 | — |
| Flash Flood | Sep 9, 2016 | $100 |
| Flood | Jul 23, 2015 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · May 27, 2019. Severe thunderstorms broke out across Barton & Lincoln Counties in the evening. Then, as evening progressed, the severe thunderstorms spread across most of the remainder of Central Kansas, then across South-Central Kansas overnight, before finally weakening as they approached Greenwood County early in the morning on the 27th. The severe thunderstorms started as hail-producers, then as they surged across Central &…
Flood · May 25, 2019. A prolonged period of severe thunderstorms that produced a grand slam of flash floods, large hail, damaging winds & even a couple tornadoes hit nearly all of the Wichita (ICT) County Warning Area (CWA) throughout the afternoon & night on the 24th. Of the severe thunderstorm modes, floods & flash floods proved to be, by far, the greatest threat to these areas. The flash flooding continued across primarily Southeast…
Flash Flood · Jun 22, 2019. Extremely powerful Severe thunderstorms that produced a trifecta of large (in a few instances very large) hail, damaging winds that reached as high as 80 mph, and flash floods struck parts of Central as well as most of South-Central and Southeast Kansas in the afternoon and evening of the 22nd. Hardest hit were Reno and Sedgwick counties where hail reached the size of baseballs in Reno County and widespread winds…
Flash Flood · Oct 3, 2019. A complex of storms moved across portions of southern Kansas during the early morning hours of October 3rd, 2019. The storms produced reports of flash flash flooding across portions of Harper county, Kansas. Two to four inches of rainfall was reported across southern Kansas.
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 Harper 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.