223 flood insurance claims·$2.4M 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 Claiborne County, Mississippi. 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.
Claiborne County experiences a flood risk profile dominated by flash floods and severe weather events, accounting for 18 flash flood events alongside tropical storms, standard floods, and hurricanes over the last 30 years. Recent impacts include heavy rainfall and localized flooding from an upper-level trough and training showers in January 2024, as well as widespread flash flooding driven by anomalous moisture and saturated soil conditions in January 2020.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that property damage occurs across multiple hazard designations. Zone A accounts for the highest volume of claims at 125, with an average payout of $12,750 and an average recorded water depth of 24 inches. Meanwhile, properties designated as Zone X report higher average water depths reaching 42 inches across 28 claims with an average payout of $14,673, and Zone X shaded areas average 40 inches of water across 38 claims.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists tracking property risk in Claiborne County should pay the closest attention to properties located within designated Zone A and various Zone X classifications, where historical claims demonstrate a consistent pattern of both frequent inundation and significant average water depths.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
29% of Claiborne County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
177 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 28 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 2011, with 40 claims and $917,864 paid, the year of 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.
18 NOAA storm reports from Claiborne County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Mississippi flood stories →
29 federal disaster declarations since 1965, 9 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 23, 2026 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes. | Jun 14, 2023 |
| Hurricane Ida | Aug 28, 2021 |
| Severe Winter Storms | Feb 11, 2021 |
| Hurricane Delta | Oct 7, 2020 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Apr 22, 2020 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, And Mudslides | Feb 10, 2020 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Apr 30, 2017 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
28 since 1996: 18 flash floods and 4 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Jan 24, 2024 | $5,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jan 24, 2024 | $1,000 |
| Flash Flood | Mar 8, 2024 | $1,000 |
| Tropical Storm | Aug 30, 2021 | $30,000 |
| Flash Flood | Apr 23, 2020 | $3,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jan 14, 2020 | $2,000 |
| Tropical Storm | Oct 9, 2020 | $25,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 25, 2017 | $20,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Jan 24, 2024. With an upper-level trough of low pressure situated over Central Plains and a very moist air mass extending north through the Mississippi River Valley, training showers and thunderstorms produced heavy rain and flooding over parts of Mississippi.
Flash Flood · Mar 8, 2024. Training of heavy thunderstorms produced flash flooding across central Mississippi and the Interstate 20 corridor.
Tropical Storm · Aug 30, 2021. Major hurricane Ida made landfall as a strong category four hurricane around 11:55am on August 29 near Grand Isle, LA. It then moved very slowly north through south central Louisiana and into Mississippi on August 30. It then turned northeast and moved across the Jackson metro area as a tropical storm and into northeast Mississippi as a tropical depression through the early morning of August 31. Ida brought tropic…
Flash Flood · Apr 23, 2020. An upper level storm system moved across the region overnight on April 22nd into 23rd. Abundant moisture and wind energy was in place to bring severe thunderstorms to the region. Damaging winds occurred along with some tornadoes. Flash flooding also occurred with efficient rainfall rates and heavy rainfall. As the cold front moved through the region later during the afternoon of the 23rd, a few more storms develop…
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 Claiborne 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.