92 flood insurance claims·$1.3M 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 Blue Earth County, Minnesota. 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 summer thunderstorms dominates the flood profile of Blue Earth County, supported by 22 recorded flash flood events compared to 19 general flood events over the last 30 years. Slow-moving storm systems and stationary boundaries frequently produce torrential rainfall rates exceeding two inches per hour. For example, a slow-moving line of storms dropped heavy rain across the county on July 18, 2025, while rounds of thunderstorms produced widespread rainfall totals of 8 to 10 inches near Mankato between June 19 and 21, 2024, causing numerous road washouts.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that claims are distributed across multiple zones, with the highest volume occurring in Zone X with 54 claims averaging an 18,496 dollar payout and an average recorded water depth of 2 inches. Meanwhile, Zone A accounts for 21 claims with an average payout of 23,338 dollars and an average recorded water depth of 7 inches. Shaded Zone X recorded 9 claims averaging a 3,150 dollar payout with an average water depth of 4 inches, and unshaded Zone X recorded 8 claims averaging a 28,409 dollar payout with an average water depth of 4 inches.
Homeowners and real estate agents in designated high-risk Special Flood Hazard Areas such as Zone A should pay the closest attention, as those properties experience greater average water depths during flood events. However, property owners in Zone X must also remain aware of potential flood risks given the substantial volume of historical claims filed outside officially mapped high-risk zones.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
45% of Blue Earth County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
38 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 4 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 2024, with 14 claims and $463,791 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.
12 NOAA storm reports from Blue Earth County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Minnesota flood stories →
24 federal disaster declarations since 1965, 13 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Jun 16, 2024 |
| Severe Winter Storm, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Mar 12, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Jun 15, 2018 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Sep 21, 2016 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Jun 11, 2014 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Mar 16, 2011 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Sep 22, 2010 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Jun 17, 2010 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
41 since 1996: 22 flash floods and 19 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jul 23, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 18, 2025 | $835,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 21, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 29, 2020 | — |
| Flood | Mar 17, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Sep 22, 2016 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 17, 2016 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 14, 2016 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jul 23, 2025. Several clusters of storms moved from central South Dakota into Minnesota during the morning, then more widespread coverage of storms developed and persisted throughout much of the day. The main axis of heavy rainfall was tied to a slow moving boundary that started across central Minnesota in the morning and progressed towards southern Minnesota by the late evening.||While many locations saw heavy rainfall amounts…
Flash Flood · Jul 18, 2025. A slow moving line of storms produced heavy rainfall across portions of southern Minnesota, especially over Blue Earth County. Widespread rain persisted for about 1.5 to 2.5 hours with rainfall rates exceeding 2 inches per hour at times. The rain began just before midnight on the 18th and continued into the 19th.
Flash Flood · Jun 21, 2024. Catastrophic flooding occurred across parts of Minnesota in mid to late June 2024 as a stationary boundary stalled out across the Upper Midwest.||On June 19-21, several rounds of thunderstorms developed and tracked along this boundary, producing widespread 4 to 6 inches of rain across southern Minnesota, with some locations picking up 8 to 10 inches of rain near Mankato Minnesota.||There were dozens, if not hundre…
Flash Flood · Jun 29, 2020. During the evening of Sunday, June 28th, a complex of thunderstorms that developed across Iowa previously, moved slowly northward across southern Minnesota before stalling in central Minnesota Monday morning. Before the torrential rain began in south central Minnesota, a few of the storms caused minor damage to a home in Sibley County. ||Deep moisture convergence along the axis of thunderstorms, training along the…
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 Blue Earth 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.