53 flood insurance claims·$849,945 paid·11 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 Wayne 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 from heavy rainfall dominates the flood history of Wayne County, accounting for 30 out of 37 recorded flood events over the last 30 years, alongside impacts from hurricanes and tropical systems. Recent activity includes heavy rain and flooding driven by a persistent wet pattern across the Gulf Coast in August 2022, as well as high winds and storm impacts from Hurricane Zeta as it raced northeast across inland southeast Mississippi in October 2020.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that property impacts vary significantly by flood zone. Properties located in Zone A face the most severe inundation, accounting for 18 claims with an average recorded water depth of 16 inches and an average payout of $35,326. Meanwhile, Zone UNKNOWN recorded 25 claims with an average water depth of 1 inch and an average payout of $8,198, Zone X recorded 9 claims with an average water depth of 2 inches and an average payout of $16,032, and Zone V recorded 1 claim with an average water depth of 5 inches and a payout of $11,800.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties situated within FEMA Zone A, where average flood depths and payouts are substantially higher than in other zones.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
In flood insurance claims here that reported a flood depth, the average was 6 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 2018, with 7 claims and $335,134 paid, the year of Severe Storms, Flooding, and Tornado.
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 Wayne County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Mississippi flood stories →
31 federal disaster declarations since 1969, 11 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 |
| Hurricane Zeta | Oct 28, 2020 |
| Hurricane Sally | Sep 14, 2020 |
| Hurricane Marco And Tropical Storm Laura | Aug 23, 2020 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Apr 22, 2020 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, And Tornado | Dec 27, 2018 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
37 since 1996: 30 flash floods and 1 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Aug 25, 2022 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 13, 2022 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Oct 28, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Dec 27, 2018 | $1.0M |
| Flash Flood | Jun 22, 2017 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Oct 7, 2017 | — |
| Flash Flood | Feb 23, 2016 | — |
| Flash Flood | Mar 11, 2016 | $10,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Aug 25, 2022. A wet pattern continued across the Gulf Coast as additional heavy rain led to numerous flooding reports across southwest Alabama and southeast Mississippi.
Flash Flood · Jul 13, 2022. Slow moving thunderstorms caused heavy rain which produced flooding in southeast Mississippi.
Tropical Storm · Oct 28, 2020. Hurricane Zeta made landfall in southeast Louisiana during the late afternoon hours of Wednesday, October 28th as a strong category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 110 mph. Zeta quickly raced northeast and moved across inland southeast Mississippi and inland southwest Alabama during the evening hours. Shortly after midnight, Thursday, October 29th, Zeta weakened to a tropical storm while moving across…
Flash Flood · Dec 27, 2018. Significant flash flooding unfolded across parts of southeast Mississippi (Perry, Greene, Wayne Counties) and southwest Alabama (Choctaw, Clarke Counties) where a swath of 10+ inches of rain fell in a short period of time. The highest rainfall totals occurred in the Clara community with one observer measuring 15.5 and another measuring 13.75 of rainfall during the event.||Numerous roads were closed or washed out a…
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 Wayne 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.