146 flood insurance claims·$1.9M paid·9 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 Yellow Medicine 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.
Flooding in Yellow Medicine County is driven primarily by river floods and heavy summer thunderstorm flash floods, with the NOAA Storm Events Database recording 10 flood events and 5 flash flood events over the last 30 years. Severe spring snowmelt along tributaries and the Minnesota River Valley—such as the severe flood melt in March 2019—frequently threatens the region. Additionally, intense summer rainfall rates can cause rapid flash flooding, as demonstrated by storms that dropped up to 6.5 inches of rain in less than 6 hours near Granite Falls and Hanley Falls in June 2012, and extreme rainfall that led to road closures and mud slides in June 2014.
National Flood Insurance Program records show claims across multiple zones, with the highest average payouts occurring in higher-risk areas. Zone A saw 42 claims with an average payout of $22,405 and an average recorded water depth of 26 inches. Properties located in shaded Zone X recorded 55 claims averaging $13,697 with an average water depth of 14 inches, while unshaded Zone X recorded 10 claims with an average payout of $4,327 and an average depth of 5 inches. Zone X properties logged 38 claims averaging $10,275 with an average water depth of 2 inches. Homeowners and real estate agents with properties in Zone A and shaded Zone X should pay the closest attention to flood risk, given their higher claim frequencies, greater water depths, and larger average payouts.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
61% of Yellow Medicine County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
107 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 17 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 1997, with 62 claims and $1.4M paid, the year of Severe Winter Storms and Severe Flooding, High Winds,severe Storms.
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.
4 NOAA storm reports from Yellow Medicine County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Minnesota flood stories →
24 federal disaster declarations since 1965, 9 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 29, 2022 |
| Severe Winter Storm, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Mar 12, 2019 |
| 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 |
| Flooding | Mar 1, 2010 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Mar 16, 2009 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
15 since 1996: 5 flash floods and 10 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jun 28, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Mar 17, 2019 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 18, 2014 | $5,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 7, 2012 | — |
| Flood | Mar 21, 2011 | — |
| Flood | Mar 16, 2010 | $420,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 23, 2004 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 20, 2002 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jun 28, 2025. Scattered storms developed near the South Dakota and Minnesota border during the early evening on June 28th, then quickly strengthened into discrete supercells as they progressed into west central Minnesota. These storms produced scattered reports of large hail, thunderstorm wind damage, and three tornadoes. ||As the evening progressed, the supercells merged into clusters and eventually into long line that produce…
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…
Flash Flood · Jun 18, 2014. Several rounds of thunderstorms developed across western and southern Minnesota during the late evening and early morning hours of Thursday, June 19th, and moved eastward through the mid morning hours. Although some of the thunderstorms did produced wind damage near Wintrop, most of the damage was associated with extreme rainfall rates, where flash flooding caused mud slides, road closures, and inundated communiti…
Flash Flood · Jun 7, 2012. Lines of thunderstorms continued to form and train across portions of west central and southwest Minnesota during the early morning hours of Thursday, June 7th. The heaviest rainfall was concentrated in eastern Yellow Medicine County, near Granite Falls and Hanley Falls, where up to 6.5 inches of rain fell in less than 6 hours.
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 Yellow Medicine 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.