2,007 flood insurance claims·$21.7M 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 Currituck 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.
Coastal flooding and flash flooding from summer storms dominate the flood risk profile in Currituck County, supported by 29 coastal flood events, 25 flash flood events, 21 tropical storm events, and 18 hurricane events recorded over the last 30 years, which included 1 hurricane-related death.
Recent events illustrate these hazards. On October 12, 2025, a coastal low combined with high pressure to produce strong northeast winds, resulting in moderate to major coastal flooding. Earlier, on July 2, 2025, a stationary front caused slow-moving storms with high rain rates that trained over the area, leading to scattered instances of flash flooding.
Flood insurance claims data from FEMA show widespread risk across multiple zones. Zone A leads with 805 claims averaging a $12,696 payout and an average recorded water depth of 3 inches. Unshaded Zone X and Zone X followed with 638 and 536 claims, averaging payouts of $16,138 and $16,658 respectively, both with an average recorded water depth of 3 inches. Zone V recorded 24 claims averaging $16,998 with an average recorded water depth of 2 inches, while Zone UNKNOWN recorded 4 claims averaging $10,693 with an average recorded water depth of 10 inches. Property owners in coastal areas and designated special flood hazard zones should pay the closest attention to these risks.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
43% of Currituck County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
1,467 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 3 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 537 claims and $6.7M 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.
48 NOAA storm reports from Currituck County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the North Carolina flood stories →
24 federal disaster declarations since 1988, 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.
103 since 1996: 25 flash floods, 9 river or area floods and 30 coastal floods or surges.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Coastal Flood | Aug 21, 2025 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Aug 21, 2025 | — |
| Coastal Flood | Sep 16, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 15, 2025 | — |
| Coastal Flood | Oct 12, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 2, 2025 | — |
| Coastal Flood | Sep 20, 2024 | — |
| Coastal Flood | Sep 19, 2024 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Coastal Flood · Aug 21, 2025. Hurricane Erin passed well offshore and combined with high pressure to the north, resulting in a period of strong onshore winds and coastal flooding across portions of the northern North Carolina Outer Banks.
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.
Coastal Flood · Sep 16, 2025. A coastal low lingered near the North Carolina and Virginia coastline on September 16, slowly moving northwest into the Chesapeake Bay by the evening of September 16. This low brought a prolonged period of elevated northerly winds across the Currituck Sound and North Carolina coastal waters, resulting in elevated seas and moderate coastal flooding.
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.
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 Currituck 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.