835 flood insurance claims·$44.3M paid·10 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 Lenoir 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 thunderstorms and tropical weather systems dominates the flood history of Lenoir County. Over the last 30 years, the NOAA Storm Events Database recorded 39 flash flood events, 14 tropical storm events, 12 general flood events, and 8 hurricane events. These tropical systems and heavy rains have caused a combined total of 8 deaths across tropical storm, flood, and hurricane categories. Recent events recorded in the county include flash flooding from slow-moving thunderstorms in July 2024, the passage of Tropical Storm Debby in August 2024, and the remnants of Hurricane Idalia in August 2023.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that flood risks extend across multiple zones, with the vast majority of historical claims concentrated in high-risk areas. Properties in Zone A account for 661 claims with an average payout of $65,699 and an average recorded water depth of 4 inches. Meanwhile, properties designated as Zone X experienced 106 claims with an average payout of $34,275 and an average recorded water depth of 5 inches. Smaller numbers of claims occurred in shaded Zone X, unshaded Zone X, and unknown zones, with average payouts ranging from $14,278 to $78,130 and average recorded water depths of 4 to 5 inches.
Homeowners and real estate agents in Zone A should pay the most attention to this flood risk, as it represents the highest concentration of insurance claims in the county. However, property owners in Zone X and other designated zones should also take note, as significant claims and recorded water depths demonstrate that flood risks exist outside of primary high-risk zones.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
4% of Lenoir County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
693 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 4 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 1999, with 271 claims and $10.2M paid, the year of Hurricane Floyd and Hurricane Floyd Major Disaster Declarations.
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.
34 NOAA storm reports from Lenoir County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the North Carolina flood stories →
29 federal disaster declarations since 1968, 10 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.
73 since 1996: 39 flash floods and 12 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Aug 6, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 11, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 10, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 8, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 31, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Nov 12, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 10, 2020 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Aug 4, 2020 | — |
— = 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 10, 2024. Several episodes of heavy rain lead to several instances of flash flooding.
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…
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 Lenoir 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.