380 flood insurance claims·$9.0M 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 Union 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.
Union Parish experiences flood risk driven primarily by flash flooding, with 42 flash flood events, 5 tropical storm events, and 4 general flood events recorded over the last 30 years. Recent flash floods have been documented during events such as May 2023 and February 2020, driven by slow-moving low pressure systems, cold fronts, and ample moisture producing bands of heavy rainfall and thunderstorms.
National Flood Insurance Program claims data indicates that high-risk Zone A properties have experienced the heaviest impact with 290 claims averaging a payout of $28,603 and an average recorded water depth of 16 inches. Moderate-to-low risk Zone X properties also face vulnerability, accounting for 63 claims with an average payout of $29,824 and an average recorded water depth of 9 inches, alongside minor claims in unshaded, shaded, and unknown zone designations.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located within Zone A, which records the highest frequency of claims and deepest average water depths, as well as properties in Zone X that remain susceptible to significant standing water during heavy precipitation events.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
1% of Union Parish’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
293 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 14 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 144 claims and $6.5M 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.
24 NOAA storm reports from Union Parish describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Louisiana flood stories →
36 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.
51 since 1996: 42 flash floods and 4 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | May 11, 2023 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Aug 27, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Oct 10, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Feb 10, 2020 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Oct 9, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Apr 13, 2019 | — |
| Flash Flood | Apr 6, 2019 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Aug 30, 2017 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · May 11, 2023. An upper level low pressure system slowly ejected northeast across the piney woods of East Texas during the evening through the morning hours of May 10th-11th. A southerly low level jet present ahead of the low spilled copious amounts of low level moisture north into East Texas and Western Louisiana, with strong large scale forcing ahead of the low enhancing numerous shower and thunderstorm development which moved…
Tropical Storm · Aug 27, 2020. Major Hurricane Laura tracked north northwest across the Central and Northern Gulf of Mexico from the Central Carribean Sea near Cuba, making landfall in Southwest Louisiana near Cameron around 1 am on August 27th as a strong Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 150 mph, and a minimum central pressure of 938 mb. Laura remained a hurricane as it tracked north across Southwest and Central Louisiana…
Flash Flood · Oct 10, 2020. Hurricane Delta tracked north northwest across the Western Carribean Sea as a major hurricane, having rapidly strengthened from a tropical depression to a Category 4 hurricane in just over 36 hours, the fastest intensification rate on record. Delta made its first landfall across the Yucatan Peninsula near Cancun on October 7th, before tracking north and making a second landfall near Creole, Louisiana in Cameron Pa…
Flash Flood · Feb 10, 2020. A band of showers and thunderstorms, some of which contained locally heavy rainfall, developed during the morning of February 10th across portions of East Texas, extreme Northwest and Northern Louisiana, along and just ahead of a slow moving cold front that extended from East Texas into extreme Northwest Louisiana and Southern Arkansas. Ample gulf and Pacific moisture and embedded upper level disturbances ahead of…
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 Union 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.