6,984 flood insurance claims·$162.8M paid·20 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 Ouachita Parish, Louisiana. 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 storms dominates the flood risk profile in Ouachita Parish, supported by 106 flash flood events and 5 total flood-related deaths recorded over the last 30 years alongside 12 general flood events and 5 tropical storms. This hazard is driven by weather patterns such as the upper-level trough and stationary front systems that triggered severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall across the region, as observed during recent events in May 2025 and April 2025.
Federal flood insurance claims data shows impacts across multiple zones, led by Zone A with 4,854 claims averaging $29,534 and an average recorded water depth of 5 inches. Properties in Zone X also face significant risk, recording 968 claims with an average payout of $33,656 and an average water depth of 6 inches, while Zone X shaded properties logged 504 claims with an average payout of $20,777 and an average water depth of 2 inches. Zone X unshaded properties recorded 73 claims with an average payout of $11,530 and an average water depth of 3 inches, and properties with an unknown zone recorded 559 claims with an average payout of $12,296 and an average water depth of 2 inches.
Homeowners, journalists, and real estate agents should pay the most attention to properties in Zone A and Zone X, where claim volumes and average payout amounts are highest.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
11% of Ouachita Parish’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
5,456 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 2016, with 1,765 claims and $89.8M paid, the year of Severe Storms and 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.
67 NOAA storm reports from Ouachita Parish describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Louisiana flood stories →
44 federal disaster declarations since 1965, 20 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 23, 2026 |
| Tropical Storm Francine | Sep 10, 2024 |
| Tropical Storm Nicholas | Sep 12, 2021 |
| Hurricane Ida | Aug 26, 2021 |
| Tropical Storm Ida | Aug 26, 2021 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Feb 11, 2021 |
| Severe Winter Storms | Feb 11, 2021 |
| Tropical Storm Zeta | Oct 26, 2020 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
123 since 1996: 106 flash floods and 12 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Apr 5, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 2, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Apr 9, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 3, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jan 2, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 10, 2022 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 2, 2021 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Aug 27, 2020 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Apr 5, 2025. A stationary front extended across portions of Northeast Texas and Southwest Arkansas during the early morning hours on April 4th, but lifted north into Southeast Oklahoma and Western Arkansas during the day. This was in response to an intensifying low level jet that developed ahead of a large upper trough that extended from the Intermountain West into the Plains, which provided the necessary lift across the very…
Flash Flood · May 2, 2025. An upper level trough traversed east across the Southern Plains on May 2nd, which reinforced a weak cold front southeast into portions of extreme Northeast Texas and Southwest Arkansas along the I-30 corridor by afternoon. Strong daytime heating contributed to ample air mass destabilization through the day across the warm and moist sector ahead of the front, with scattered severe thunderstorms developing by midday…
Flash Flood · Apr 9, 2024. A frontal boundary became stationary across the heart of the Ark-La-Tex region in vicinity of the Interstate 30 corridor on April 8th before slowly advancing southeast on April 9th. Concurrently, very moist southwest flow aloft resulting from a nearly cut-off low across the Desert Southwest provided for precipitable water values near 2 inches. Thunderstorms developed and gradually spread northward from Central…
Flash Flood · Jun 3, 2024. A linear mesoscale convective system (MCS) advanced southeast into the Ark-La-Tex from Oklahoma during the afternoon and evening hours on June 3rd. A pocket of strong instability was present ahead of the line, where MLCAPE values ranged from around 2500 to 3500 J/kg range and surface dew points were in the 70s. Instability along with strong large-scale ascent associated with a vorticity maxima and low-level conver…
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 Ouachita Parish 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.