410 flood insurance claims·$8.6M paid·8 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 Cass County, Nebraska. 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.
River flooding dominates the flood history of Cass County, Nebraska, supported by 51 flood events and 24 flash flood events recorded over the last 30 years by the NOAA Storm Events DB.
Recent historical impacts are documented in NOAA storm narratives from June and July 2024. A series of shortwave troughs and training thunderstorms brought heavy precipitation and unsettled weather in late June 2024, followed by ongoing river flooding into early July 2024 that kept sections of I-29 and the I-29/I680 junction closed as floodwaters receded and affected riverfront properties.
Property owners and real estate agents should pay close attention based on the distribution of NFIP claims across FEMA zones. High-risk Zone A accounts for 209 claims with an average recorded water depth of 5 inches and an average payout of $26,969. Meanwhile, Zone X properties also face significant risk, with 104 standard Zone X claims averaging 6 inches of water depth and $32,223 in payouts, 84 shaded Zone X claims averaging 3 inches of water depth and $11,859 in payouts, and 10 unshaded Zone X claims recording an average water depth of 15 inches and an average payout of $46,464.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
31% of Cass County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
303 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 5 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 119 claims and $1.3M 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.
28 NOAA storm reports from Cass County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Nebraska flood stories →
27 federal disaster declarations since 1967, 8 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm And Straight-line Winds | Mar 18, 2025 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Jul 31, 2024 |
| Waconda-beaver Lake Fire Complex | Apr 8, 2023 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes | Dec 15, 2021 |
| Severe Storms And Straight-line Winds | Jul 9, 2021 |
| Severe Winter Storm, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Mar 9, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Straight-line Winds | Jun 12, 2017 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | May 6, 2015 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
75 since 1996: 24 flash floods and 51 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Jun 24, 2024 | $75,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 2, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 2, 2024 | $50,000 |
| Flood | Jul 1, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 24, 2021 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 29, 2020 | — |
| Flood | Mar 15, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Mar 14, 2019 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Jun 24, 2024. A series of shortwave troughs traversing the northern CONUS brought unsettled weather to the area for the end of June. On the 21st, a stationary front was draped across northeast Nebraska into Iowa. Ahead of one of the aforementioned shortwave troughs, several rounds of strong thunderstorms developed near this frontal zone and moved across northeast Nebraska. At 8 pm on the 21st, radar imagery showed training thun…
Flash Flood · Jul 2, 2024. At the beginning of July, river flooding was still ongoing along portions of the Missouri River extending from east-central Nebraska/southwest Iowa to the southern Nebraska border. Most of the length of the river crested at the end of June, so the greatest impacts are addressed in June StormData. However, sections of I-29 and the I-29/I680 junction remained closed through the first week of July as flood waters rec…
Flood · Jul 1, 2024. At the beginning of July, river flooding was still ongoing along portions of the Missouri River extending from east-central Nebraska/southwest Iowa to the southern Nebraska border. Most of the length of the river crested at the end of June, so the greatest impacts are addressed in June StormData. However, sections of I-29 and the I-29/I680 junction remained closed through the first week of July as flood waters rec…
Flash Flood · Jun 24, 2021. Training storms developed across southeast Nebraska, produced strong winds and caused flash flooding.
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 Cass 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.