211 flood insurance claims·$3.6M paid·2 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 Sumner 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 heavy rainfall events dominates the flood risk in Sumner County, accounting for 40 recorded events alongside 34 general floods and 1 direct fatality over the last 30 years. Heavy rains from passing storm complexes frequently produce localized inundation, as occurred during heavy rainfall events in July 2020 and widespread saturated storms in May 2019 that flooded the Kansas Turnpike near Wellington.
Federal flood insurance claims data shows that historical payouts extend across multiple zones. Properties in Zone A experienced the highest claim volume with 158 filings averaging $23,303 and an average recorded water depth of 7 inches. Meanwhile, Zone X properties logged 22 claims averaging $14,564 with an average recorded water depth of 13 inches, and Zone X Shaded properties recorded 4 claims averaging $30,649 with an average water depth of 2 inches. An additional 27 claims came from unknown zones, averaging $11,106 with an average water depth of 2 inches.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located within high-risk Zone A, where the vast majority of historical flood insurance claims are concentrated, as well as lower-risk Zone X properties that have experienced significant average water depths during past inundation events.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
2% of Sumner County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
162 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 7 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 1998, with 45 claims and $1.0M paid, the year of Flooding 10/31/98.
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.
30 NOAA storm reports from Sumner County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Kansas flood stories →
26 federal disaster declarations since 1973, 2 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Jul 17, 2025 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Jun 3, 2025 |
| 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 And Flooding | Sep 2, 2016 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | May 4, 2015 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
74 since 1996: 40 flash floods and 34 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Aug 28, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Jul 10, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 27, 2019 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 26, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Jun 18, 2019 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 8, 2019 | $100 |
| Flash Flood | May 8, 2019 | $2.0M |
| Flash Flood | May 8, 2019 | $200,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Aug 28, 2025. Very heavy rainfall moved across portions of south-central Kansas during the morning hours of August 28th. This heavy rain resulted in the flooding of the Kansas Turnpike near Wellington.
Flood · Jul 10, 2020. An early morning complex of storms moved across south central Kansas producing sporadic severe weather on July 10th, 2020. The main issue was very heavy rain. Most locations were between 2 and 3 inches. However, one report of 4.5 inches was noted in Kingman county.
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 &…
Flash Flood · May 26, 2019. Clusters of thunderstorms with heavy rains caused further flash flooding in parts of South & Southeast Kansas in the morning on the 26th. Thunderstorms that had occurred the previous evening produced, on average, up to around 3 inches of rain. The renewed thunderstorms that occurred the following morning produced another 1 to 3 inches this morning.
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 Sumner 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.