11 flood insurance claims·$252,864 paid·3 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 Caldwell 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 driven by heavy rainfall and severe thunderstorms dominates the flood risk in Caldwell County. Over the last 30 years, the NOAA Storm Events Database records 21 flash flood events resulting in 1 death, alongside 12 general flood events resulting in 1 death. Recent occurrences include slow-moving thunderstorm complexes and heavy rainfall events in July 2023, August 2023, and February 2025.
National Flood Insurance Program claims data indicates that risk extends across multiple zones with varying impacts. Properties in Zone A have recorded 5 claims with an average payout of $9,481 and an average recorded water depth of 5 inches. Meanwhile, properties in Zone X_UNSHADED have logged 4 claims with a higher average payout of $44,553 and an average recorded water depth of 1 inch, while Zone X accounts for 2 claims with an average payout of $18,363 and an average recorded water depth of 1 inch.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located within high-risk Zone A, where average recorded water depths are greatest, as well as properties in Zone X and unshaded Zone X areas that have experienced high-severity claims despite lower average water depths.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
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 2016, with 4 claims and $37,925 paid, the year of Severe Storm, Tornadoes, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides.
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.
18 NOAA storm reports from Caldwell County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Kentucky flood stories →
27 federal disaster declarations since 1989, 3 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.
33 since 1996: 21 flash floods and 12 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Feb 16, 2025 | — · 1 killed |
| Flash Flood | Feb 15, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 27, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 24, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Feb 16, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 21, 2021 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 11, 2021 | $30,000 |
| Flood | Dec 31, 2018 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Feb 16, 2025. Significant flash flooding occurred over west Kentucky, as anomalously high amounts of low-level moisture streamed northward over a warm front that became stationary along the Tennessee border. Steady rains began just after 0000CST on the 15th and continued until around 0100CST on the 16th. The rain came in waves with the first one targeting Fulton, Murray, Fort Campbell, and Guthrie with 1-2��� in the pre-d…
Flash Flood · Feb 15, 2025. Significant flash flooding occurred over west Kentucky, as anomalously high amounts of low-level moisture streamed northward over a warm front that became stationary along the Tennessee border. Steady rains began just after 0000CST on the 15th and continued until around 0100CST on the 16th. The rain came in waves with the first one targeting Fulton, Murray, Fort Campbell, and Guthrie with 1-2��� in the pre-d…
Flash Flood · Aug 27, 2023. A small thunderstorm complex over the Pennyrile region of western Kentucky slowed down and intensified during the morning. A very well-defined and slow-moving mesoscale convective vortex over southeast Missouri drifted off to the southeast through the morning hours, tracking into western Kentucky by midday. This system interacted with a very moist and modestly unstable air mass, resulting in heavy rainfall and iso…
Flash Flood · Jul 24, 2023. Clusters of intense thunderstorm cells rapidly formed in a strongly unstable air mass during the heat of the afternoon. The most intense cells merged into a small severe thunderstorm complex around the northern end of the Land Between The Lakes area (Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley). This complex was associated with sporadic large hail and damaging winds from southern Livingston County eastward across Lyon and Cald…
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 Caldwell 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.