2,480 flood insurance claims·$55.8M paid·15 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 Pike 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 in Pike County, Kentucky, accounting for 137 events and 6 deaths over the past 30 years compared to 49 general flood events and 1 death. Recent historical records illustrate this hazard, including severe storms and heavy rainfall that caused flash flooding on January 1, 2022, and repeated rounds of showers and thunderstorms that led to flooding on June 16, 2025.
NFIP claim data demonstrates that flood risk extends across multiple zones, with the vast majority of claims concentrated in high-risk areas. Properties located in Zone A have recorded 1,579 claims with an average water depth of 7 inches and an average payout of $27,377. Meanwhile, moderate- and lower-risk areas also experience significant impacts, including 326 claims in Zone X with an average water depth of 10 inches and an average payout of $32,147, and 295 claims in unshaded Zone X with an average water depth of 4 inches and an average payout of $22,276. Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties situated within Zone A as well as properties in Zone X designations where recorded water depths during past claims averaged between 7 and 10 inches.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
21% of Pike County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
1,987 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 1984, with 653 claims and $10.3M paid, the year of High Winds, Tornadoes & Flooding.
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.
72 NOAA storm reports from Pike County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Kentucky flood stories →
47 federal disaster declarations since 1967, 15 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, Flooding, And Landslides | Feb 14, 2025 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Feb 14, 2025 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Jul 26, 2022 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, Flooding, Landslides | Dec 31, 2021 |
| Severe, Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Feb 27, 2021 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Feb 3, 2020 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
186 since 1996: 137 flash floods and 49 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | May 17, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 16, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Apr 11, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 31, 2022 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 28, 2022 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 27, 2022 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 26, 2022 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 17, 2022 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · May 17, 2025. Eastern Kentucky experienced multiple rounds of severe weather from May 16th into the early morning hours of May 17th.||The initial round of severe weather, occurring during the morning and early afternoon, produced swaths of large to significant hail (approaching baseball size), localized damaging winds, and heavy rainfall. Notably, intense thunderstorm wind gusts impacted downtown London, tearing a roof off the…
Flash Flood · Jun 16, 2025. Showers and storms moved across eastern Kentucky as a stalled stationary front sat near the Ohio River and northern Kentucky through the day, putting much of the state in the warm and unstable sector. A digging 500mb trough also pushed east into the Ohio Valley during the day and points southwest, leading to height falls and enhanced lift over eastern Kentucky. Storms had impacted eastern Kentucky for several days…
Flood · Apr 11, 2024. A strengthening low pressure system and several frontal boundaries all came together across eastern Kentucky during the day on April 11, 2024. Radar showed scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms across the state through much of the day. By the early afternoon, SPC issued a watch for the far eastern portion of the state and into neighboring western Virginia, much of West Virginia, and Southeast Ohio. The m…
Flash Flood · Jul 31, 2022. A stalled frontal boundary and surface low pressure south of the state early Sunday morning began to slowly lift northward into the southeast and south-central portion of the state throughout the day. Showers and thunderstorms developed along the boundary and moved eastward. Since the system as whole showed very little forward progression, multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms ended up moving across the sam…
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 Pike 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.