90 flood insurance claims·$2.0M paid·6 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 Steele 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 risk profile in Steele County, Minnesota, supported by 19 recorded flash flood events compared to 8 general flood events over the last 30 years. Recent regional weather patterns demonstrate this threat, including a storm complex on June 13, 2022, that produced training storms and heavy rainfall leading to roads covered in water around Owatonna. Later, heavy rainfall totals from August 16 to 18, 2025, resulted in flooded roadways and damaged buildings across southern Minnesota.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that properties situated within Zone A face the highest average severity, accounting for 58 claims with an average payout of $36,390 and an average recorded water depth of 17 inches. By comparison, properties located in Zone X_UNSHADED, Zone X, and Zone X_SHADED recorded lower claim counts and lower average payouts ranging between $7,757 and $22,431, with average recorded water depths between 2 and 7 inches. Homeowners and real estate agents with properties in Zone A should pay the closest attention to flood risk due to the higher historical payout amounts and greater average water depths associated with these locations.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
26% of Steele County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
78 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 2010, with 53 claims and $1.2M 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.
9 NOAA storm reports from Steele County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Minnesota flood stories →
17 federal disaster declarations since 1965, 6 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 And Flooding | Sep 21, 2016 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Jun 11, 2014 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Sep 22, 2010 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Jun 17, 2010 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Aug 18, 2007 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 29, 2005 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
27 since 1996: 19 flash floods and 8 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Aug 17, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 22, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 13, 2022 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 5, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Sep 22, 2016 | — |
| Flood | Jun 18, 2014 | $2.4M |
| Flash Flood | Jun 16, 2014 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 15, 2011 | — |
— = 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.
Flash Flood · Jun 22, 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 13, 2022. A complex of storms that moved along the Minnesota/Iowa border surged northeast and began to train across south central Minnesota. Initially, large hail occurred south of Mankato, and around Owatonna. After the initial hail, training of the storms allowed for very heavy rainfall to occur between Waseca and Owatonna. Locally, 2.80 inches of rain fell around Waseca in less than three hours, and a few roads in the ci…
Flash Flood · Jul 5, 2019. An afternoon intensifying mesoscale convective system that moved from southeast South Dakota, eastward across southern Minnesota during the late afternoon and evening of Friday, July 5th, produced sporadic wind damage around Arlington, southeast to Henderson, Minnesota. Two brief tornadoes occurred. Part of a roof was blown off in Arlington, but it wasn't enough to determine whether it was a tornado or a severe do…
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 Steele 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.