3 flood insurance claims·$143,452 paid·11 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 Redwood 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.
River overflow and summer thunderstorms dominate the flood risk in Redwood County, Minnesota, backed by 18 general flood events resulting in 1 death and 11 flash flood events over the last 30 years.
Historical events illustrate these dual hazards. In March 2019, above-average snowpack and a cold late winter contributed to a severe spring melt along regional rivers and tributaries. Months later, on September 15, 2019, the Redwood River rose above flood stage under a river flood warning, resulting in a fatality when a swimmer was caught in the current. Additionally, heavy rain events driven by summer thunderstorms have produced rapid inundation.
National Flood Insurance Program records show that properties in Zone A have experienced flood claims averaging $47,817 per claim, with an average recorded water depth of 4 inches. Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located near rivers, streams, and low-lying areas within Zone A.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
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.
9 NOAA storm reports from Redwood County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Minnesota flood stories →
21 federal disaster declarations since 1965, 11 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Jun 16, 2024 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 8, 2022 |
| Severe Winter Storm, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Mar 12, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Jun 15, 2018 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Jun 11, 2014 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, And Tornadoes | Jul 1, 2011 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Mar 16, 2011 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Sep 22, 2010 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
29 since 1996: 11 flash floods and 18 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Aug 17, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Apr 11, 2023 | $1.3M |
| Flood | Mar 17, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Sep 15, 2019 | — · 1 killed |
| Flood | Jul 3, 2018 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 3, 2018 | $500,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 17, 2017 | $350,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 18, 2014 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Aug 17, 2025. Several individual rounds of thunderstorms impacted southern Minnesota from Friday, August 16th through Sunday, August 18th. Heavy rain amounts on the order of 5-10 inches fell over the course of 72 hours, most of which fell from late Saturday into early Sunday, leading to several cases of flooded roadways and damaged buildings. The highest amounts and most widespread impacts were across Waseca County.
Flood · Apr 11, 2023. A near-record snowfall season across Minnesota and Wisconsin led to a snowpack with snow-water-equivilent (SWE) values of 4 to 6 inches across much of the region by mid-March. Below normal temperatures for the first of of spring kept much of the snowpack in tact until the end of the month when it started to melt.||The melt accelerated in early April. On April 08, highs were in the 60s across the region. On April 0…
Flood · Mar 17, 2019. There were many factors that led to a severe Spring flood melt along the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers and several of their tributaries during the last two weeks of March. The first factor was above average snowpack, especially over the Minnesota River Valley for mid March. Additionally, the added effect of a cold late Winter kept this snowpack deeper into the early Spring. Once temperatures warmed, and snow be…
Flood · Sep 15, 2019. During the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 15th, the local police department reported that an individual had disappeared in the Redwood River near the 100 block of West Bridge Street. Several juveniles had been swimming in the river when they reported one in the group, had been caught in the current and swept away. This river was above flood stage and had a river flood warning for the Redwood River.
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 Redwood 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.