285 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 Camden 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 Camden County, based on 13 flash flood, 10 tropical storm, and 8 hurricane events recorded over the last 30 years. Recent impacts include flash flooding caused by a stationary front and heavy afternoon storms on June 15, 2025, as well as tropical storm-force wind gusts from the expansive wind field of Hurricane Erin passing east of the coast on August 21, 2025. Another heavy rainfall event produced flash flooding on July 10, 2025.
National Flood Insurance Program records show claims concentrated in specific zones. Zone A accounts for the vast majority with 271 claims, averaging a $15,110 payout and an average recorded water depth of 4 inches. Zone X recorded 11 claims with an average payout of $20,376 and an average recorded water depth of 34 inches, while Zone X_UNSHADED recorded 3 claims with an average payout of $37,091 and an average recorded water depth of 0 inches.
Homeowners and real estate agents with properties in Zone A should pay the closest attention to flood risk given the high volume of historical claims, while properties in Zone X require awareness due to greater average water depths when flooding occurs.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
1% of Camden County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
274 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 81 claims and $1.4M 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.
14 NOAA storm reports from Camden County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the North Carolina flood stories →
23 federal disaster declarations since 1996, 6 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.
41 since 1996: 13 flash floods, 8 river or area floods and 2 coastal floods or surges.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Tropical Storm | Aug 21, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 15, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 10, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 18, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Sep 17, 2024 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Sep 22, 2023 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Jul 8, 2021 | $20,000 |
| Flood | Nov 12, 2020 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Tropical Storm · Aug 21, 2025. The center of Hurricane Erin stayed several hundred miles east of the Middle Atlantic coast on August 21, 2025. However, due the extremely large size of the cyclone with an expansive wind field, tropical storm force gusts occurred over the Atlantic, Currituck Sound, and northeast North Carolina.
Flash Flood · Jun 15, 2025. A stationary front was located across central Virginia to northeast North Carolina on June 15. This front slowly moved southwest through the afternoon. Widespread storms developed during the afternoon and continued into the evening on June 15. These storms produced locally heavy rain and flash flooding across portions of northeast North Carolina.
Flash Flood · Jul 10, 2025. A warm and very moist air mass was in place across the region on July 10. Thunderstorms with heavy rainfall formed in the afternoon across the area with flash flooding.
Flash Flood · Jul 18, 2024. Scattered thunderstorms along a frontal boundary 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 Camden 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.