40 flood insurance claims·$697,972 paid·13 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 Sabine 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 heavy rain events dominates the flood risk profile in Sabine Parish, accounting for 55 out of 64 recorded flood events over the last 30 years, alongside occasional tropical storms and hurricanes.
Recent NOAA storm narratives illustrate this localized threat, noting intense slow-moving thunderstorms that dropped heavy rainfall across West Central Louisiana in July 2024, as well as heavy moisture surges driven by upper-level weather disturbances in January 2023 and March 2025.
National Flood Insurance Program claims data indicates that properties located within high-risk Special Flood Hazard Areas designated as Zone A face the most severe impacts, averaging 33 claims with an average payout of $28,842 and an average recorded water depth of 9 inches. By comparison, properties in Zone X have recorded significantly lower impacts, averaging 6 claims with an average payout of $2,051 and an average recorded water depth of 4 inches. Homeowners and real estate professionals in Zone A areas should pay the closest attention to property flood mitigation and insurance requirements.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
Less than 1% of Sabine Parish’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
33 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 8 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 11 claims and $268,427 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.
43 NOAA storm reports from Sabine Parish describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Louisiana flood stories →
33 federal disaster declarations since 1977, 13 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.
64 since 1996: 55 flash floods and 2 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Mar 28, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 25, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jan 2, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Mar 22, 2022 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 20, 2021 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 9, 2021 | — |
| Hurricane (Typhoon) | Aug 27, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 20, 2020 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Mar 28, 2025. Numerous showers and thunderstorms developed across the Four State Region on March 28th in response to an upper-level disturbance moving across the Red River Valley of North Texas and Southern Oklahoma. As the afternoon hours progressed, strong southerly flow allowed for temperatures and dew points to rise, creating a more unstable atmosphere with MLCAPE values approaching 1000 J/kg. Thunderstorms started to stren…
Flash Flood · Jul 25, 2024. Intense showers and thunderstorms increased in coverage across parts of the Toledo Bend Country in West Central Louisiana by mid to late morning on July 25th. Rather slow cell motions and intense rainfall rates promoted areas of heavy rainfall across these areas. In addition, a weak low pressure center and related mid-level vorticity maximum were located just to the north over Southwest to South Central Arkansas.…
Flash Flood · Jan 2, 2023. A vigorous upper level trough traversed east through the Desert Southwest and into the Southern Rockies January 1st, before ejecting northeast across the Texas/Oklahoma Panhandles into Western Kansas on the 2nd. In advance of this trough, rich low level moisture quickly spread northward from the Gulf of Mexico across East Texas, North Louisiana, and Southern Arkansas, along a strong southerly low level jet that de…
Flash Flood · Mar 22, 2022. A closed upper low emerged out of the Rockies and into the Central Plains during the afternoon and evening hours of March 21st, with the attendant upper trough swinging east through Central Texas and Oklahoma. Strong southerly low level winds allowed for the rapid return of warm, moist, and unstable air north behind a warm front which lifted north through East Texas and North Louisiana. Large scale forcing began t…
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 Sabine 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.