34 flood insurance claims·$606,707 paid·4 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 Butler 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.
Butler County experiences a flood risk profile dominated by longer-duration flood events alongside notable flash flooding. Over the last 30 years, NOAA recorded 104 flood events and 30 flash flood events. Severe weather systems frequently produce heavy rainfall that leads to widespread inundation, such as the heavy rain and flash flooding driven by a strong system in January 2023, and a stalling cold front that produced flash floods in April 2025.
Federal flood insurance data indicates that historical claims are concentrated in designated high-risk areas. Specifically, Zone A accounts for 28 claims with an average payout of $25,276 and an average recorded water depth of 5 inches. An additional 6 claims occurred in zones listed as unknown, averaging a $4,228 payout and an average recorded water depth of 5 inches.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties situated within Zone A, where the highest volume of claims and payout amounts are concentrated.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
Less than 1% of Butler County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
28 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 5 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 10 claims and $120,923 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.
19 NOAA storm reports from Butler County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Kentucky flood stories →
29 federal disaster declarations since 1969, 4 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 23, 2026 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes | May 16, 2025 |
| 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, Landslides, And Mudslides | May 21, 2024 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Mar 3, 2023 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
134 since 1996: 30 flash floods and 104 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Apr 4, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jan 3, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jan 25, 2021 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 4, 2021 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 28, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Feb 23, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Feb 25, 2018 | — |
| Flood | Feb 23, 2018 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Apr 4, 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 · 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…
Flash Flood · Jan 25, 2021. On January 25, a low pressure system moved east through the Ohio River Valley. This brought one to three inches of rainfall and gusty winds through central Kentucky. Isolated flooding and tree damage resulted.
Flash Flood · May 4, 2021. Early on May 3rd, central Kentucky sat in the warm sector ahead of an approaching surface low. Much of the region saw only rain showers, but one isolated cell in southern Kentucky was able to produce a short lived EF-1 tornado in the city of Tompkinsville, KY. ||On May 4th, a cold front, following the first system, produced additional rain showers and thunderstorms on the already saturated ground. The result was w…
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 Butler 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.