11,183 flood insurance claims·$187.3M paid·12 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 New Hanover 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 heavy summer thunderstorms and tropical systems dominates the flood character of New Hanover County. Over the last 30 years, the NOAA Storm Events Database recorded 113 flash flood events and 62 general flood events, alongside tropical storms, coastal floods, storm surges, and hurricanes. Recent documented events include excessive rainfall from slow-moving storms on August 6, 2025, and historic rainfall and extensive flash flooding produced by Potential Tropical Cyclone #8 on September 16, 2024.
Federal flood insurance claims data highlights that properties across multiple zones face significant financial risk, recording average water depths ranging from 7 to 12 inches per claim. Zone A accounts for the highest volume with 8,174 claims averaging a $19,138 payout and an average recorded water depth of 9 inches. Meanwhile, unshaded Zone X properties recorded 643 claims with the highest average payout at $41,294 and an average water depth of 12 inches, while Zone V properties recorded 947 claims with an average payout of $27,458 and an average water depth of 10 inches.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists working with properties in high-risk coastal areas (Zone V), standard Special Flood Hazard Areas (Zone A), and ostensibly lower-risk locations (Zone X and unshaded Zone X) should pay close attention to these historical claim patterns and recurring flash flood threats.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
8% of New Hanover County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
9,944 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 9 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 1996, with 3,783 claims and $86.5M paid, the year of Hurricane Bertha and Hurricane Fran.
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.
85 NOAA storm reports from New Hanover County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the North Carolina flood stories →
32 federal disaster declarations since 1984, 12 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 21, 2026 |
| Hurricane Helene | Sep 25, 2024 |
| Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight | Sep 16, 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 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
217 since 1996: 113 flash floods, 62 river or area floods and 15 coastal floods or surges.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Aug 6, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Sep 16, 2024 | $15,000 |
| Flash Flood | Sep 16, 2024 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Sep 16, 2024 | $50,000 |
| Flash Flood | Sep 16, 2024 | $2,000 |
| Flash Flood | Sep 16, 2024 | $3,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 12, 2024 | $1,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 9, 2024 | $3,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Aug 6, 2025. Excessive rainfall develop from slow moving storms that tended to train over the same area. Precipitable water values were an excessive 2.2 inches.
Flash Flood · Sep 16, 2024. Potential Tropical Cyclone #8 located off the SC coast was classified by the National Hurricane Center on September 15 and a Tropical Storm Warning was issued for the entire coast of southeast NC and northeast SC at that time. The system slowly moved toward the coast but never became organized enough to be classified as a tropical (or subtropical) cyclone, eventually moving inland around the NC/SC border on Septem…
Flash Flood · Aug 12, 2024. Deep moisture and a stalled frontal boundary left the area very susceptible to flash flooding from isolated, slow moving storms.
Flash Flood · Aug 9, 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 before making another landfall along the central SC coast between Charleston and Georgetown. The storm then moved northwest to near the SC/NC border and weakened to a tropical depression on August 8 before quickly becoming a non-…
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 New Hanover 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.