291 flood insurance claims·$5.1M paid·1 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 Kalamazoo County, Michigan. 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.
6% of Kalamazoo County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
143 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 2008, with 46 claims and $703,664 paid.
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.
13 NOAA storm reports from Kalamazoo County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Michigan flood stories →
11 federal disaster declarations since 1965, 1 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 29, 2005 |
| Power Outage | Aug 14, 2003 |
| Snow | Dec 11, 2000 |
| Mi - Severe Weather 1/2 /99 | Jan 2, 1999 |
| Severe Storms & Tornadoes | May 16, 1980 |
| Blizzards & Snowstorms | Jan 27, 1978 |
| Severe Storms, High Winds & Flooding | Apr 26, 1975 |
| Severe Storm & Freezing | Apr 5, 1972 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
14 since 1996: 7 flash floods and 7 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | May 18, 2020 | $100,000 |
| Flood | Apr 17, 2013 | $5.0M |
| Flash Flood | Jun 5, 2010 | $100,000 |
| Flood | Sep 13, 2008 | $11.0M |
| Flash Flood | Jul 2, 2008 | $50,000 |
| Flood | May 21, 2004 | $1.0M |
| Flash Flood | Aug 23, 2002 | $200,000 |
| Flood | Feb 24, 2001 | $10,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · May 18, 2020. Significant rainfall fell across all of Lower Michigan on May 17 and 18 with many locations in Southwest Lower Michigan reporting over 3 inches of rain. This was the culmination of an already wet week that had experienced three separate episodes of heavy rain. As a result, soil was already saturated and this additional rain immediately became runoff instead of soaking into the ground. There were many reports of r…
Flood · Apr 17, 2013. Record flooding occurred during the month of April and record crests occurred on the lower portions of the Grand River at Ionia, Lowell, Ada, Comstock Park, and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Due to the severity of the flooding, Michigan���s Governor Rick Snyder declared a state of disaster for 19 counties and two cities. ||The two cities declared in the disaster were Grand Rapids and Ionia. The counties included…
Flash Flood · Jun 5, 2010. A large area of thunderstorms spread over the area ahead of a warm front on Saturday evening. The severe weather occurred along and south of the Interstate 94 corridor. A storm passing just south of downtown Battle Creek produced a tornado just after 11 PM EST. Parts of Calhoun and Kalamazoo counties also received heavy rain that produced flash flooding.
Flood · Sep 13, 2008. Extensive flooding occurred across Kalamazoo county as a result of excessive rainfall which began on the twelfth and continued on the thirteenth and fourteenth. Many roads in the city of Kalamazoo were closed for several days and damage to public infrastructure (mostly roads and bridge washouts) was estimated at eleven million dollars.
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 Kalamazoo 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.