140 flood insurance claims·$2.4M paid·12 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 Winn 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 weather systems dominates the flood history of Winn Parish, accounting for 37 out of 46 recorded flood events over the last 30 years alongside periodic impacts from tropical systems and hurricanes.
Severe weather events have frequently impacted the area, including an upper-level low pressure system that produced flash flooding on May 6, 2025, and an upper-level trough that caused additional flash flooding on April 22, 2020. Major tropical systems have also brought significant weather to the region, such as Hurricane Laura on August 27, 2020, and Hurricane Delta on October 9, 2020.
National Flood Insurance Program records show that property owners in Zone A have filed the highest number of claims at 113, with an average payout of $16,313 and an average recorded water depth of 8 inches. Homeowners and real estate agents should note that properties in Zone X have recorded the highest average payout at $79,753 with an average water depth of 6 inches, while properties in Zone X Unshaded experienced average payouts of $40,789 and an average water depth of 15 inches. Residents in these mapped zones, as well as those in areas with unknown flood designations who have filed claims averaging $9,980 with 3 inches of water depth, should pay the closest attention to local flood risks.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
5% of Winn Parish’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
119 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 1991, with 43 claims and $474,222 paid, the year of Severe Storms, 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.
27 NOAA storm reports from Winn Parish describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Louisiana flood stories →
32 federal disaster declarations since 1983, 12 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.
46 since 1996: 37 flash floods and 4 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | May 6, 2025 | — |
| Hurricane (Typhoon) | Aug 27, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Apr 22, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Oct 10, 2020 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Oct 9, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Feb 21, 2018 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 31, 2017 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 30, 2017 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · May 6, 2025. An upper level low pressure system over the Desert Southwest shifted east through the Intermountain West on May 6th, inducing surface low development over West Texas. This also resulted in a tightening pressure gradient across the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley, with increased southerly low level winds allowing for a warm front to shift north to the I-20 corridor of East Texas and North Louisiana bef…
Hurricane (Typhoon) · 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 · Apr 22, 2020. An upper level trough ejected east-northeast across the Oklahoma/Texas Panhandles during the morning of April 22nd, before shifting across much of Oklahoma during the afternoon. Meanwhile, a warm front over Central and Southeast Texas into Southern Louisiana lifted slowly north into portions of East Texas and Central Louisiana during the afternoon. Large scale forcing quickly increased ahead of this trough such th…
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…
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 Winn 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.