148 flood insurance claims·$1.4M paid·5 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 Monroe 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 thunderstorm activity is the dominant flood character of Monroe County, based on 26 recorded flash flood events compared to 5 general flood and 2 tropical storm events over the last 30 years. Recent occurrences include heavy rainfall and flash flooding from frontal systems in March 2021 and November 2022, as well as severe storms driven by moisture advection and an upper-level low in March 2025.
National Flood Insurance Program claims data indicates that the vast majority of historical payouts are concentrated in Zone A, which accounts for 121 claims with an average payout of $12,758 and an average recorded water depth of 12 inches. By comparison, Zone X recorded 12 claims with an average payout of $18,974 and an average recorded water depth of 3 inches, while Zone UNKNOWN recorded 13 claims averaging $2,889 with an average water depth of 2 inches.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located within Zone A, where the highest volume of claims and deepest average water levels have been documented.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
2% of Monroe County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
123 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 10 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 1991, with 39 claims and $286,434 paid, the year of Severe Storms & Flooding and Severe Storms, Tornadoes & 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.
12 NOAA storm reports from Monroe County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Mississippi flood stories →
26 federal disaster declarations since 1973, 5 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 23, 2026 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes | Mar 24, 2023 |
| Hurricane Ida | Aug 28, 2021 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Apr 13, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Feb 22, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Dec 23, 2015 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Associated Flooding | Apr 15, 2011 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Apr 23, 2010 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
33 since 1996: 26 flash floods and 5 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Mar 15, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Nov 29, 2022 | $50,000 |
| Flash Flood | Mar 31, 2021 | $25,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jan 11, 2020 | $100,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jan 11, 2020 | $15,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jan 11, 2020 | — |
| Flood | Feb 11, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 1, 2020 | $100,000 |
— = 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 · Nov 29, 2022. Surface low pressure moved from the Middle Mississippi Valley into the Great Lakes while a trailing cold front swept across the Mid-South on November 29, 2022. Clusters of storms developed during the late morning as a warm front lifted north ahead of the main system. Some of these storms were severe with large hail over northeast Mississippi. During the evening a second round of showers and thunderstorms developed…
Flash Flood · Mar 31, 2021. A cold front pushed into a moist and unstable airmass resulting in numerous showers and thunderstorms across West Tennesee and North Mississippi during the early morning hours of March 31st. Heavy rainfall resulted in flash flooding while a few severe storms produced damaging winds and a couple of weak tornado across Northeast Mississippi.
Flash Flood · Jan 11, 2020. A cold season quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) moved across the Mid-South during the overnight and early morning hours Saturday, January 11, 2020. Strong southerly winds drew unseasonably warm, moist air northward into the region ahead of a cold front. Early morning temperatures were in the upper 60s and lower 70s with dewpoints in the upper 60s. This aided in the development of uncapped surface-based instabi…
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 Monroe 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.