13 flood insurance claims·$475,389 paid·5 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 Alleghany County, North Carolina. 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 and heavy rainfall systems dominates the flood risk profile in Alleghany County, which recorded 20 flash flood events and 12 general flood events over the last thirty years according to the NOAA Storm Events Database. Recent examples include a severe storm event in July 2023 driven by high precipitable water values, and extensive impacts from Hurricane Helene in September 2024. A general flood event was also recorded in January 2024 following strong southerly wind flow and deep moisture transport from the Gulf of Mexico.
National Flood Insurance Program claims data indicates that properties located within FEMA Zone A experienced the highest impacts, registering 8 claims with an average payout of $69,258 and an average recorded water depth of 2 inches. Zone X properties recorded 3 claims with an average payout of $18,348 and an average water depth of 1 inch. An additional claim was recorded in an unknown zone averaging $1,225 with an average water depth of 1 inch, and one claim in Zone X_UNSHADED averaged $3,572 with an average water depth of 0 inches.
Homeowners and real estate agents with properties in FEMA Zone A should pay the closest attention to flood risk, as this zone accounts for the majority of high-cost insurance claims in the county.
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 2 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 2024, with 4 claims and $330,452 paid, the year of Tropical Storm Debby and Hurricane Helene.
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 Alleghany County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the North Carolina flood stories →
20 federal disaster declarations since 1989, 5 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 21, 2026 |
| Hurricane Helene | Sep 25, 2024 |
| Tropical Storm Helene | Sep 25, 2024 |
| Tropical Storm Debby | Aug 5, 2024 |
| Hurricane Ian | Sep 28, 2022 |
| Tropical Storm Eta | Nov 12, 2020 |
| Hurricane Isaias | Jul 31, 2020 |
| Hurricane Dorian | Sep 1, 2019 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
32 since 1996: 20 flash floods and 12 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Sep 27, 2024 | $5.0M |
| Flood | Jan 9, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 15, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 6, 2023 | — |
| Flood | May 21, 2020 | $5,000 |
| Flood | Apr 13, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jan 11, 2020 | — |
| Flood | Feb 6, 2020 | $46,300 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Sep 27, 2024. Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida as a powerful Category 4 hurricane late Thursday, September 26, and moved quickly northward into the southeastern states, and then turned slightly northwestward towards the southern Appalachian Mountains overnight into Friday morning, weakening as it moved over land. Helene���s intensity and fast forward motion led to impacts being felt well inland, from the Florida…
Flood · Jan 9, 2024. A deep, negatively tilted upper level trough and associated occluded front passed from the central Mississippi River Valley on January 9th toward the lower New England region by the morning of the 10th. Strong southerly wind flow ahead of the upper trough carried deep moisture from the Gulf of Mexico northward into the Carolinas and the lower Mid-Atlantic. Precipitable water values ranged from 1.2 inches to nearly…
Flash Flood · Jul 15, 2023. Thunderstorms developed, with some becoming severe, as a wave of low pressure passing along the front over western North Carolina served to increase 925 mb and 850 mb winds into the 20 kt-25 kt range from the south, tapping into deep moisture over the eastern Carolinas. By 8 pm EDT, precipitable water values across northwest North Carolina had risen as high as 2.1 inches, which is around 2 standard deviations abov…
Flash Flood · Aug 6, 2023. Showers and thunderstorms developed across northwest North Carolina to the south of a stationary front draped across northern Virginia into central West Virginia. By early afternoon, a surface trough had developed along the lee side of the Blue Ridge Mountains, providing the lower atmospheric convergence needed to aid in thunderstorm development. A couple of the storms increased to severe levels and produced dam…
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 Alleghany 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.