205 flood insurance claims·$16.9M paid·11 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 Jones 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 summer thunderstorms and tropical systems defines the flood hazard in Jones County, North Carolina. Over the last 30 years, the NOAA Storm Events Database records 20 flash flood events, 11 tropical storms, 8 hurricanes resulting in 1 death, and 3 general flood events. Recent events illustrate this pattern, including slow-moving thunderstorms that produced heavy rain and flash flooding in July 2024, and Tropical Storm Debby in August 2024, which brought strong moisture advection and heavy rainfall to eastern North Carolina following its movement northward from the coast. Hurricane Isaias also impacted the region in August 2020.
Federal Insurance Program records show that flood losses extend beyond high-risk areas. Properties located in FEMA Zone A have accounted for 131 claims with an average payout of $98,627 and an average recorded water depth of 5 inches. Meanwhile, properties in Zone X recorded 72 claims averaging $82,571 with an average recorded water depth of 3 inches, indicating that homes outside mapped high-risk zones still experience damaging water accumulations.
Homeowners in Zone A, Zone X, and unshaded areas should pay close attention to local flood risks, as both designated high-risk zones and moderate-to-low risk zones have experienced repeated claims and significant average water depths during heavy rain and tropical weather events.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
Less than 1% of Jones County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
132 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 2018, with 101 claims and $13.5M paid, the year of Hurricane Florence.
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.
19 NOAA storm reports from Jones County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the North Carolina flood stories →
27 federal disaster declarations since 1996, 11 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.
42 since 1996: 20 flash floods and 3 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Aug 6, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 11, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 8, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Nov 12, 2020 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Aug 4, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Sep 14, 2018 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Sep 13, 2018 | $32.8M |
| Flash Flood | Apr 24, 2017 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Aug 6, 2025. Slow moving thunderstorms produced isolated areas of flash flooding.
Flash Flood · Jul 11, 2024. Slow moving thunderstorms produced very heavy rain and several areas of flash flooding across Eastern NC.
Flash Flood · Aug 8, 2024. After making landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida as a Category 1 hurricane on August 5, Debby weakened to a tropical storm as it slowly moved across southeastern Georgia and offshore. Tropical Storm Debby then came ashore in South Carolina after stalling off the southeast coast for several days. Debby gradually progressed northward through central North Carolina and eventually into southern Virginia.||The cir…
Flash Flood · Nov 12, 2020. Heavy rain and resultant flash flooding occurred during the afternoon hours. The rain was caused by a combination of a slow moving cold front along with moisture in connection with Tropical Storm Eta, which eventually would track across the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, across northern Florida, and well off of the NC coast. While rain began the day before, on November 10th, the heaviest of the rain fell through t…
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 Jones 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.