174 flood insurance claims·$3.9M paid·3 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 Lee 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.
Flash flooding driven by severe thunderstorms dominates the flood profile of Lee County, Mississippi, accounting for 68 of the 75 recorded flood events over the last 30 years alongside 4 standard floods and 3 tropical storms. This hazard is driven by weather patterns such as the March 15, 2025 event, where an upper-level low moving into the Upper Mississippi Valley combined with moisture advection, high dewpoints, and an approaching cold front to support severe thunderstorm development and flash flooding across the area.
Federal flood insurance data demonstrates that properties inside designated high-risk areas bear the brunt of these events. Zone A accounts for the vast majority of historical claims with 127 filings, resulting in an average payout of $29,653 and an average recorded water depth of 3 inches. Moderate-to-low risk areas also experience impacts, including 33 claims in Zone X with an average payout of $43,989 and an average water depth of 1 inch, 7 claims in Zone X Shaded with an average payout of $7,265 and an average water depth of 2 inches, and 6 claims in Zone X Unshaded with an average payout of $7,734 and an average water depth of 4 inches.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties situated within Zone A due to the high frequency of claims, while acknowledging that properties in Zone X and other lower-risk zones also face documented flood liabilities and significant average payouts.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
9% of Lee County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
140 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 2 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 2003, with 45 claims and $549,535 paid, the year of Severe Storms, Tornadoes and High Winds.
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.
28 NOAA storm reports from Lee County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Mississippi flood stories →
22 federal disaster declarations since 1973, 3 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 23, 2026 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Mar 14, 2025 |
| Hurricane Ida | Aug 28, 2021 |
| Severe Storm, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Oct 26, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Feb 22, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Apr 28, 2014 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Associated Flooding | Apr 15, 2011 |
| Hurricane Gustav | Aug 28, 2008 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
75 since 1996: 68 flash floods and 4 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Mar 15, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Mar 15, 2025 | $50,000 |
| Flash Flood | Mar 15, 2025 | $25,000 |
| Flash Flood | Mar 15, 2025 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 14, 2025 | $3,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 14, 2025 | $5,000 |
| Flash Flood | Apr 10, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 5, 2024 | $350,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Mar 15, 2025. An upper low over the Central Plains moved into the Upper Mississippi Valley during the evening hours of Friday, March 14, 2025. Increasing moisture advection ahead of an approaching cold front lifted dewpoints into the low to mid 60s. This coupled with increasing height falls and a mid-level 80 knot jet rotating around the main upper low supported severe thunderstorm development. Large looping hodographs, MLCAPE…
Flash Flood · Jun 14, 2025. Pulse-type showers and thunderstorms continued during the afternoon hours with torrential rainfall rates. Due to a lack of shear, slow moving/nearly stationary storm motion heightened flash flooding threats, particularly over urban areas. A storm developed over Tupelo, MS and dumped buckets of rain over the area resulting in widespread flash flooding. The airport recorded 3.43 inches and set a daily rainfall record.
Flash Flood · Apr 10, 2024. Moisture advecting northward ahead of a surface low over the Lower Mississippi Valley fed showers and thunderstorms across northern Mississippi. These slow-moving thunderstorms moved across an area already saturated from previous rains. As a result, flash flooding occurred across northeast Mississippi.
Flash Flood · Jun 5, 2024. A mesoscale convective vortex moved across the Mid-South during the late afternoon and early evening on June 5, 2024. This feature interacted with a moist and unstable airmass to produce scattered thunderstorms across northeast Mississippi. Surface-based convective available potential energy values of 3000 J/kg and precipitable water values around 1.75 inches resulted in flash flooding, isolated damaging wind, and…
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 Lee 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.