423 flood insurance claims·$12.9M 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 Bertie 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 tropical systems dominates the flood risk profile in Bertie County, North Carolina, backed by 24 flash flood events, eight tropical storm events, eight general flood events, and seven hurricane events recorded over the last 30 years by the NOAA Storm Events DB. Recent events include heavy rain from slow-moving storms along a stationary front on July 2, 2025, and moisture from Tropical Cyclone Debby producing heavy rain on August 8, 2024.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that high-risk Zone A properties have experienced the most impact with 281 claims averaging a $37,155 payout and an average recorded water depth of 6 inches. Moderate-to-low risk Zone X properties also face exposure, recording 85 claims with an average payout of $19,384 and an average water depth of 2 inches, alongside 31 claims in shaded Zone X with an average payout of $45,660 and an average water depth of 3 inches, and 19 claims in unshaded Zone X with an average payout of $25,642 and an average water depth of 16 inches.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located within Zone A, as well as properties in Zone X areas that have a history of recorded flood claims and standing water depths.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
15% of Bertie County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
334 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 2016, with 172 claims and $5.5M paid, the year of Hurricane Matthew.
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.
12 NOAA storm reports from Bertie County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the North Carolina flood stories →
28 federal disaster declarations since 1968, 8 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 21, 2026 |
| Hurricane Helene | Sep 25, 2024 |
| Tropical Storm Debby | Aug 5, 2024 |
| Hurricane Ian | Sep 28, 2022 |
| Hurricane Isaias | Jul 31, 2020 |
| Hurricane Dorian | Sep 1, 2019 |
| Hurricane Florence | Sep 7, 2018 |
| Hurricane Matthew | Oct 4, 2016 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
47 since 1996: 24 flash floods and 8 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jul 2, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Sep 30, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Sep 27, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 8, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 28, 2023 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Sep 23, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 21, 2023 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Jul 8, 2021 | $15,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jul 2, 2025. A stationary front was draped across the Mid-Atlantic early on July 2. In the afternoon, the front slowly advanced southward, serving as a focus for showers and storms across northeast North Carolina through the day. Storms were slow-moving, had high rain rates, and trained over locations for an extended duration. This led to scattered instances of flash flooding.
Flash Flood · Sep 30, 2024. Scattered thunderstorms near a frontal boundary produced heavy rain which caused flash flooding across portions of northeast North Carolina.
Flash Flood · Sep 27, 2024. The combination of moisture from Tropical Cyclone Helene overrunning a frontal boundary produced heavy rain which caused flash flooding across portions of northeast North Carolina.
Flash Flood · Aug 8, 2024. Tropical Cyclone Debby tracking northward from the Carolinas across western Virginia produced heavy rain which caused flash flooding across portions of northeast North Carolina.
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 Bertie 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.