15 flood insurance claims·$179,684 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 Ohio 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.
Long-term flood records for Ohio County, Kentucky, indicate that standard riverine flooding and flash flooding dominate the local event mix, accounting for 60 flood events and 40 flash flood events over the last 30 years, resulting in one recorded fatality. Recent activity includes severe storm systems in February 2025 that brought heavy rainfall, flooding, and unseasonably high precipitable water drawn from the Gulf of Mexico.
Federal insurance claims data shows that properties in designated Special Flood Hazard Areas bear the heaviest financial impact. Specifically, Zone A properties accounted for 11 claims with an average payout of $23,617 and an average recorded water depth of 2 inches. One claim was filed in Zone X, with an average payout of $11,109 and an average recorded water depth of 3 inches, while three claims with an average payout of $3,252 and an average recorded water depth of 0 inches occurred in zones classified as unknown.
Property owners located within Zone A and other mapped flood hazard areas should pay the closest attention to these risks, as they experience the highest frequency of claims and the largest average payouts.
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 2 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 2011, with 3 claims and $18,939 paid.
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.
23 NOAA storm reports from Ohio County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Kentucky flood stories →
30 federal disaster declarations since 1971, 4 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, Landslides, And Mudslides | May 21, 2024 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Mar 3, 2023 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Flooding, And Tornadoes | Dec 10, 2021 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
100 since 1996: 40 flash floods and 60 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Feb 17, 2025 | $10,000 · 1 killed |
| Flash Flood | Feb 15, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Feb 15, 2025 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Apr 5, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jan 3, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 28, 2020 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 28, 2020 | $50,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 28, 2020 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Feb 17, 2025. A strong storm system moved across the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys on February 15th and 16th, 2025, bringing heavy rainfall and flooding, severe weather, and winter weather to central Kentucky. The large scale upper level pattern featured deep troughing ejecting across the central CONUS, with broad southwesterly flow occurring in the low and mid troposphere. Southerly flow helped to draw rich moisture up from the G…
Flash Flood · Feb 15, 2025. A strong storm system moved across the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys on February 15th and 16th, 2025, bringing heavy rainfall and flooding, severe weather, and winter weather to central Kentucky. The large scale upper level pattern featured deep troughing ejecting across the central CONUS, with broad southwesterly flow occurring in the low and mid troposphere. Southerly flow helped to draw rich moisture up from the G…
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 · 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 Ohio 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.