210 flood insurance claims·$4.8M paid·4 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 Catawba 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 severe weather events dominates the flood history of Catawba County, accounting for 33 events out of 45 total recorded flood events over the last 30 years, alongside 8 standard floods and 4 tropical storms. Recent notable events include a major frontal system on January 9, 2024, that brought 3 to 5 inches of rain in approximately 12 hours, and Tropical Cyclone Helene on September 27, 2024, which produced widespread heavy rainfall through a combination of tropical moisture and a slow-moving cold front.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that claims are distributed across multiple zones. Zone A accounts for 111 claims with an average payout of $29,950 and an average recorded water depth of 5 inches. Zone X accounts for 83 claims with an average payout of $29,659 and an average recorded water depth of 14 inches. Additionally, Zone X_UNSHADED records 10 claims averaging $27,985 with an average water depth of 2 inches, and Zone X_SHADED records 4 claims averaging $6,041 with an average water depth of 4 inches. Homeowners and properties in Zone A and Zone X should pay the most attention to flood risk, given the significant number of historical insurance claims filed in both zones.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
11% of Catawba County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
126 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 2020, with 41 claims and $1.3M paid, the year of Hurricane Isaias.
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.
27 NOAA storm reports from Catawba County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the North Carolina flood stories →
21 federal disaster declarations since 1977, 4 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 |
| Hurricane Ian | Sep 28, 2022 |
| Hurricane Isaias | Jul 31, 2020 |
| Hurricane Dorian | Sep 1, 2019 |
| Hurricane Florence | Sep 7, 2018 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, Landslides, Mudslides | Jul 27, 2013 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
45 since 1996: 33 flash floods and 8 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Sep 27, 2024 | $50.0M |
| Flash Flood | Sep 27, 2024 | $10.0M |
| Tropical Storm | Sep 27, 2024 | $2.0M |
| Flash Flood | Jan 9, 2024 | $1,000 |
| Tropical Storm | Sep 30, 2022 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Oct 29, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 19, 2020 | $500 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 15, 2020 | $50,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Sep 27, 2024. Tropical Cyclone Helene began organizing over the western Caribbean on the 23rd and 24th of September before rapidly intensifying as it moved north through the eastern Gulf of Mexico on the 25th and 26th. A plume of moisture extending from the intensifying storm interacted with a slow-moving cold front to produce a band of widespread heavy rain showers and embedded scattered thunderstorms over the southern Appalac…
Tropical Storm · Sep 27, 2024. Tropical Cyclone Helene began organizing over the western Caribbean on the 23rd and 24th of September before rapidly intensifying as it moved north through the eastern Gulf of Mexico on the 25th and 26th. A plume of moisture extending from the intensifying storm interacted with a slow-moving cold front to produce a band of widespread heavy rain showers and embedded scattered thunderstorms over the southern Appalac…
Flash Flood · Jan 9, 2024. A major/complex frontal system brought widespread rain with embedded thunderstorms to western North Carolina, mainly during the afternoon of the 9th. Widespread rainfall amounts of 3 to 5 inches (with locally higher amounts) in around 12 hours resulted in numerous reports of flooding. Isolated severe thunderstorms also resulted in a number of damaging wind gusts reports over the Piedmont, along with an EF1 tornado…
Tropical Storm · Sep 30, 2022. Very gusty winds developed over the North Carolina Piedmont as Tropical Cyclone Ian made a second landfall as a minimal hurricane near Myrtle Beach during the afternoon of the 30th. Frequent wind gusts of 35 to 45 mph, with occasional gusts as high as 50 mph resulted in dozens of trees blown down throughout the area. Multiple trees fell on structures and vehicles, especially in the Charlotte area, where a mobile h…
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 Catawba 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.