70 flood insurance claims·$3.4M paid·6 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 Madison 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.
Flash flooding from summer thunderstorms dominates the flood profile of Madison County, Nebraska. Over the last 30 years, NOAA recorded 23 flash flood events and 12 general flood events, which resulted in 2 deaths. Recent documented events include a severe flash flood on July 7, 2025, driven by a mesoscale convective system tracking across the region, and widespread historic flooding on March 13, 2019, caused by a bomb cyclone that triggered rapid snowmelt over frozen ground and 1 to 2.5 inches of rain.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that property damage is not restricted to high-risk areas. Properties in Zone A have recorded 53 claims with an average payout of $69,277 and an average recorded water depth of 5 inches. Meanwhile, properties in Zone X have accounted for 11 claims with a higher average payout of $90,537 and an average recorded water depth of 6 inches. Additional claims were filed in Zone X_SHADED (2 claims, average payout of $4,278, average water depth of 0 inches), Zone X_UNSHADED (2 claims, average payout of $2,176, average water depth of 8 inches), and Zone UNKNOWN (2 claims, average payout of $0, average water depth of 0 inches).
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located in both designated high-risk flood areas (Zone A) and moderate-to-low risk areas (Zone X), as both zones have experienced repetitive claims and significant financial losses from flooding.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
7% of Madison County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
57 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 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 2010, with 22 claims and $3.0M paid, the year of Severe Storms, Ice Jams, and Flooding and Severe Storms and 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.
13 NOAA storm reports from Madison County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Nebraska flood stories →
19 federal disaster declarations since 1967, 6 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms And Straight-line Winds | Jul 9, 2021 |
| Severe Winter Storm, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Mar 9, 2019 |
| Severe Winter Storm And Straight-line Winds | Apr 13, 2018 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Jun 1, 2010 |
| Severe Storms, Ice Jams, And Flooding | Mar 6, 2010 |
| Severe Winter Storms And Snowstorm | Dec 22, 2009 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | May 28, 2007 |
| Severe Winter Storms | Dec 19, 2006 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
35 since 1996: 23 flash floods and 12 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jul 7, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 15, 2024 | $100,000 |
| Flood | Mar 13, 2019 | $194,000 · 1 killed |
| Flood | Mar 13, 2019 | — |
| Flash Flood | Apr 14, 2012 | $200,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 20, 2010 | $4,000 |
| Flood | Jun 14, 2010 | $1.0M · 1 killed |
| Flood | Jun 10, 2010 | $30,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jul 7, 2025. On July 7, 2025, a lee surface trough pushed into western Nebraska and South Dakota during the afternoon, initiating scattered thunderstorms across the region. By evening, these storms consolidated into a larger mesoscale convective system (MCS) that tracked into northeast Nebraska before expanding southward across eastern Nebraska and southwest Iowa through the night.||Ahead of the main MCS, several discrete supe…
Flash Flood · Jun 15, 2024. On the morning of the 15th, upper air analysis showed a shortwave trough centered over the High Plains. At the surface, a warm front draped across the Plains slowly lifted north throughout the day, eventually stalling out across eastern Nebraska and down into northwestern Missouri. That afternoon, two areas of thunderstorm development was noted, one in northeast Kansas and another in northeast Nebraska. The thunde…
Flood · Mar 13, 2019. A 971mb bomb cyclone moved out of the central Rockies on Wednesday, March 13, 2019 and helped to create widespread, moderate to major, and in many cases historic, flooding across eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. From 4 to 15 inches of snow cover remained across the mid Missouri River valley, and the ground was frozen with existing frost depths of 15 to 23 inches. Warm temperatures allowed all of the snow to rapi…
Flash Flood · Apr 14, 2012. A strong upper level system over the southern Rockies lifted northeast across the plains causing an intense surface low pressure system and attendant warm front to lift into Nebraska. The main warm front remained either in southern Nebraska or in Kansas, and the shear and instability associated with the system produced widespread multi-cellular convection with embedded super cell thunderstorms near and north of t…
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 Madison 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.