87 flood insurance claims·$1.5M 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 Platte 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.
Flooding from river floods and summer flash floods dominates the risk profile in Platte County, Nebraska, backed by 34 recorded flood events resulting in 2 deaths and 24 flash flood events over the last 30 years. Recent events include severe flash flooding and flooding from continuous thunderstorms on June 25 to 26, 2025, which brought repeated rounds of heavy rainfall totaling 4 to locally 7+ inches, as well as a flash flood driven by a stalled cold front on May 31, 2024.
National Flood Insurance Program records show that properties in high-risk Zone A have experienced the highest volume of claims with 47 filings, averaging a payout of $26,124 and an average recorded water depth of 9 inches. Meanwhile, Zone X properties experienced fewer claims totaling 10, but recorded a higher average payout of $34,584 and a higher average recorded water depth of 26 inches. Zone X shaded properties recorded 18 claims with an average payout of $3,714 and an average water depth of 1 inch.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located within FEMA Zone A due to the high frequency of claims, as well as properties in Zone X where recorded water depths during past floods have averaged over two feet.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
31% of Platte County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
68 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 8 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 2019, with 13 claims and $911,166 paid, the year of Severe Winter Storm, Straight-line Winds, 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.
26 NOAA storm reports from Platte County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Nebraska flood stories →
23 federal disaster declarations since 1966, 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 | May 20, 2024 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes | Dec 15, 2021 |
| Severe Winter Storm, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Mar 9, 2019 |
| Severe Winter Storm And Straight-line Winds | Apr 13, 2018 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Straight-line Winds | Jun 12, 2017 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Jun 1, 2010 |
| Severe Storms, Ice Jams, And Flooding | Mar 6, 2010 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
58 since 1996: 24 flash floods and 34 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Jun 26, 2025 | $1,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 25, 2025 | $1,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 7, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 31, 2024 | $50,000 |
| Flood | Jun 2, 2024 | $5,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 2, 2024 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Apr 28, 2022 | — |
| Flood | May 27, 2019 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Jun 26, 2025. From the afternoon of June 25th into the morning of June 26th, continuous thunderstorms occurred in eastern Nebraska along a stalled surface trough/boundary stretching from northwest Iowa into northwest Kansas. Thunderstorm development was also aided by low level moisture transport and a passing mid-level disturbance. ||With storm motion largely parallel to the boundary, many locations saw repeated rounds of heavy…
Flash Flood · Jun 25, 2025. From the afternoon of June 25th into the morning of June 26th, continuous thunderstorms occurred in eastern Nebraska along a stalled surface trough/boundary stretching from northwest Iowa into northwest Kansas. Thunderstorm development was also aided by low level moisture transport and a passing mid-level disturbance. ||With storm motion largely parallel to the boundary, many locations saw repeated rounds of heavy…
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 · May 31, 2024. Upper-level troughing was noted over the northern Rockies via upper-air analysis the morning of the 30th. This disturbance slowly tracked east across the northern Plains. Associated with this upper-level disturbance, a weakening cold front dove southeast across the northern Plains, stalling out across eastern Nebraska and northwest Iowa by the morning of the 31st. Along and ahead of this front, scattered showers 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 Platte 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.