9 flood insurance claims·$49,652 paid·5 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 Person 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 Person County, North Carolina. Over the last 30 years, the NOAA Storm Events Database records 25 flash flood events, alongside 5 hurricane events, 1 tropical storm event, and 1 general flood event.
This risk is driven by tropical systems impacting the region, such as the remnants of Tropical Storm Chantal in July 2025, which tracked northwest into central North Carolina and produced widespread flooding and record rainfall of up to 11 inches in parts of the Piedmont.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that property damage occurs in both designated high-risk and moderate-to-low-risk areas. Zone A properties account for 6 historical claims with an average payout of $8,259 and an average recorded water depth of 1 inch. Zone X properties account for 3 claims with an average payout of $4,178 and an average recorded water depth of 2 inches. Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay close attention to properties in both Zone A and Zone X, as both zones have experienced recorded water depths and insurance claims during heavy precipitation events.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
In flood insurance claims here that reported a flood depth, the average was 1 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 2017, with 3 claims and $8,358 paid.
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.
14 NOAA storm reports from Person County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the North Carolina flood stories →
27 federal disaster declarations since 1977, 5 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 21, 2026 |
| Tropical Depression Chantal | Jul 6, 2025 |
| 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 |
| Tropical Storm Michael | Oct 10, 2018 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
32 since 1996: 25 flash floods and 1 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jul 7, 2025 | $5,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 7, 2025 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 6, 2025 | $500,000 |
| Flash Flood | Sep 25, 2024 | $1,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 19, 2018 | — |
| Flash Flood | Sep 17, 2018 | — |
| Flash Flood | Oct 11, 2018 | $50,000 |
| Tropical Storm | Oct 11, 2018 | $500,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jul 7, 2025. Tropical Storm Chantal made landfall over northeastern South Carolina during the morning hours of July 6. The remnants of Chantal then tracked west-northwest into portions of central North Carolina, stalling out over the area before tracking east-northeast into Virginia by the 7th of July. Catastrophic flash flooding occurred from record rainfall of up to 11 inches in some spots of the Piedmont, included 6 flash f…
Flash Flood · Jul 6, 2025. Tropical Storm Chantal made landfall over northeastern South Carolina during the morning hours of July 6. The remnants of Chantal then tracked west-northwest into portions of central North Carolina, stalling out over the area before tracking east-northeast into Virginia by the 7th of July. Catastrophic flash flooding occurred from record rainfall of up to 11 inches in some spots of the Piedmont, included 6 flash f…
Flash Flood · Sep 25, 2024. A stalled frontal boundary over central North Carolina slowly edged northward into Virginia. That northward movement combined with forcing aloft to produce scattered to numerous showers and storms in the evening and into the early morning hours of 25 September. Severe gusts occurred in Randolph County, as well as flash flooding over the northern and northeast Piedmont.
Flash Flood · Aug 19, 2018. A meso-scale boundary along the North Carolina-Virginia state line sparked a complex of slow moving convection that produced 4 to 5 inches of rain and isolated flash flooding across Person County. This complex then moved southward into the Triangle region around midnight, where it produced another 3 to 4 inch swath of rain over the Raleigh-Durham Metro area. This heavy rainfall led to numerous reports of flash flo…
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 Person 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.