25 flood insurance claims·$325,837 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 Thayer 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 slow-moving summer thunderstorms dominates the flood profile of Thayer County, accounting for 15 out of 21 recorded flood events over the last 30 years alongside 6 general flood events. Recent events illustrate this pattern, such as July 2020, when a cold front brought slow-moving thunderstorms and heavy rain to the area, and another late-July 2020 event where a slow-moving upper low produced locally heavy rainfall and multiple rounds of thunderstorms. Additional localized flooding occurred in June 2019 during a 24-hour period of damp and cool conditions.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that properties situated in FEMA Zone A have experienced the heaviest impacts in the county, accounting for 19 claims with an average payout of $16,717 and an average recorded water depth of 18 inches. By comparison, minor claims have been filed in Zone UNKNOWN (3 claims, averaging $848 and 2 inches of water depth), Zone X_UNSHADED (2 claims, averaging $11,030 and 2 inches of water depth), and Zone X (1 claim, averaging $327 and 1 inch of water depth). Homeowners and real estate agents with properties located within Zone A should pay the closest attention to flood risk and mitigation requirements.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
10% of Thayer County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
21 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 15 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 2015, with 9 claims and $163,417 paid, the year of Severe Storms, Tornadoes, 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.
19 NOAA storm reports from Thayer County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Nebraska flood stories →
23 federal disaster declarations since 1967, 6 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Aug 8, 2025 |
| Severe Winter Storm And Straight-line Winds | Mar 18, 2025 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes | Dec 15, 2021 |
| Severe Winter Storm, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Mar 9, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | May 6, 2015 |
| Severe Winter Storms And Snowstorm | Dec 22, 2009 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Nov 16, 2009 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 22, 2008 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
21 since 1996: 15 flash floods and 6 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jul 29, 2020 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 26, 2020 | $25,000 |
| Flood | Jun 22, 2019 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 18, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Oct 1, 2019 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 19, 2018 | $15,000 |
| Flash Flood | Sep 2, 2018 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | May 27, 2016 | $25,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jul 29, 2020. Slow moving upper low brings multiple rounds of thunderstorms, including locally heavy rain and a few severe thunderstorms, on July 29th. Low to mid level warm air advection ahead of a lead shortwave trough led to the development of scattered showers and thunderstorms roughly along a line from Hastings to Superior between 6-8am CDT. Locally heavy rain rates and slow moving thunderstorms led to areas of heavy rain…
Flash Flood · Jul 26, 2020. Cold front brings slow moving thunderstorms and heavy rain to extreme southern portions of south central Nebraska during the late afternoon and evening of July 26. Thunderstorms developed between 3pm and 4pm CDT from southwest to northeast, generally along a line from Rooks County in north central Kansas, to Thayer County in south central Nebraska. Once thunderstorms developed, heavy rain quickly became the main c…
Flood · Jun 22, 2019. The overall most significant, widespread damaging wind event of the 2019 convective season wrought havoc across much of South Central Nebraska between the late evening of Thursday the 20th and around sunrise on Friday the 21st. The culprits were two separate linear mesoscale convective systems (MCS), with the first one by far the most impactful. This first storm complex, which traversed the area between 10:30 p.m.…
Flash Flood · Jun 18, 2019. For most of South Central Nebraska, the 24-hour period from the evening of Monday the 17th into the evening of Tuesday the 18th was simply dreary, damp and seasonably-cool, with no severe storm threat and daytime high temperatures only in the mid-60s to low-70s F. The majority of the area measured no more than 0.50-1.50 of rain, most of which accumulated over the course of several hours, thus causing few-if-any fl…
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 Thayer 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.