379 flood insurance claims·$6.7M 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 Bullitt County, Kentucky. 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 weather and heavy rainfall dominates the flood risk profile in Bullitt County, accounting for 38 recorded events and 1 fatality over the last 30 years compared to 15 general flood events. Recent flash flood events include heavy overnight rainfall and severe storms in January 2023, as well as multiple episodes in April 2025 and June 2025 driven by stalled fronts, moist unstable environments, and training thunderstorms.
National Flood Insurance Program records show that flood losses extend across multiple zones, with the highest concentration of claims occurring in high-risk areas. Properties located in Zone A have accounted for 292 claims with an average payout of $20,849 and an average recorded water depth of 7 inches. Meanwhile, properties in Zone X have logged 58 claims with an average payout of $19,442 and an average recorded water depth of 3 inches, while smaller numbers of claims have occurred in Zone X unshaded, Zone X shaded, and unknown zones.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties situated in Zone A, which experiences the heaviest concentration of flood claims and average water depths of 7 inches. Properties in Zone X and other designated zones also face meaningful risk, having accumulated dozens of claims and average water depths ranging from 3 to 7 inches.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
5% of Bullitt County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
306 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 1997, with 196 claims and $3.2M paid, the year of Severe Storm, Flooding, and Tornadoes.
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.
28 NOAA storm reports from Bullitt County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Kentucky flood stories →
27 federal disaster declarations since 1970, 7 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 23, 2026 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Apr 2, 2025 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Apr 2, 2025 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Flooding, And Landslides | Feb 14, 2025 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Feb 14, 2025 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Mar 3, 2023 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Flooding, And Tornadoes | Dec 10, 2021 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Feb 21, 2018 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
53 since 1996: 38 flash floods and 15 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jun 15, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Apr 5, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Apr 5, 2025 | $20,000 · 1 killed |
| Flash Flood | Feb 16, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jan 3, 2023 | — |
| Flood | Jan 25, 2021 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 1, 2021 | — |
| Flood | Feb 25, 2018 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jun 15, 2025. Split upper-level flow set up over the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys for several days between June 15th and 17th, 2025. Upper low pressure became cut off, with a surface stationary front meandering back and forth across the lower Ohio Valley. In the vicinity of the surface front, a moist and unstable environment was present, with precipitable water values near 2 inches. Each afternoon, scattered to numerous showers…
Flash Flood · Apr 5, 2025. On the night of April 2nd, 2025, a cold front approached the lower Ohio Valley. Along and ahead of the cold front, numerous supercells developed over southern Illinois and western Kentucky. These storms tracked eastward and occasionally grew upscale into a QLCS with bowing segments. Storms lasted all night and into the morning hours, as the cold front began to stall over the lower Ohio Valley. These storms left be…
Flash Flood · Feb 16, 2023. A strong storm system moved through the Ohio Valley beginning late in the evening on February 15th and continuing through much of the day on February 16th. An amplified mid- and upper-level trough moved across the central Plains during this time period, with an associated surface disturbance transiting from the Red River Valley northeastward into the Ohio Valley. A surface warm front was located parallel to the Oh…
Flash Flood · Jan 3, 2023. During the overnight hours and into the morning on January 3rd, a strong system moved across central Kentucky, bringing isolated damaging wind gusts and widespread heavy rainfall. The system was associated with a negatively-tilted upper-level trough which moved from the Four Corners region on January 2nd to the upper Midwest by January 4th. A surface cyclone transited in a similar fashion to the upper trough, with…
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 Bullitt 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.