81 flood insurance claims·$1.7M paid·4 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 Union 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 floods driven by severe summer thunderstorms and tropical systems dominate the flood risk in Union County. According to NOAA records from the last 30 years, flash floods account for 55 events and two deaths, alongside 24 general flood events and four tropical storm impacts. Recent occurrences include slow-moving thunderstorms in September 2023 that produced very heavy rainfall and flash flooding, as well as heavy rain from the remnants of Tropical Storm Debby in August 2024 and Tropical Cyclone Helene in September 2024.
National Flood Insurance Program claims data demonstrate that flood risks extend beyond traditional high-risk areas. Zone X has recorded 40 claims with an average payout of $28,438 and an average recorded water depth of 2 inches. Meanwhile, Zone A accounts for 34 claims with an average payout of $35,876 and an average recorded water depth of 3 inches. Zone X_UNSHADED recorded 5 claims with an average payout of $13,831 and an average recorded water depth of 1 inch, and Zone UNKNOWN recorded 2 claims with an average payout of $2,008 and an average recorded water depth of 2 inches.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located in both designated high-risk flood areas like Zone A and moderate-to-low risk areas like Zone X, where historical claims prove that localized heavy rainfall regularly causes property damage.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
13% of Union County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
39 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 2 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 18 claims and $382,653 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.
20 NOAA storm reports from Union County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the North Carolina flood stories →
21 federal disaster declarations since 1977, 4 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 21, 2026 |
| Hurricane Helene | Sep 25, 2024 |
| Tropical Storm 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 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
83 since 1996: 55 flash floods and 24 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Sep 27, 2024 | $5,000 |
| Tropical Storm | Sep 27, 2024 | $2.0M |
| Flash Flood | Aug 8, 2024 | $1,000 |
| Flash Flood | Sep 9, 2023 | $5,000 |
| Tropical Storm | Sep 30, 2022 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 19, 2022 | $500 |
| Tropical Storm | Oct 29, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Nov 12, 2020 | $1,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Sep 27, 2024. Tropical Cyclone Helene began organizing over the western Caribbean on the 23rd and 24th of September before rapidly intensifying as it moved north through the eastern Gulf of Mexico on the 25th and 26th. A plume of moisture extending from the intensifying storm interacted with a slow-moving cold front to produce a band of widespread heavy rain showers and embedded scattered thunderstorms over the southern Appalac…
Tropical Storm · Sep 27, 2024. Tropical Cyclone Helene began organizing over the western Caribbean on the 23rd and 24th of September before rapidly intensifying as it moved north through the eastern Gulf of Mexico on the 25th and 26th. A plume of moisture extending from the intensifying storm interacted with a slow-moving cold front to produce a band of widespread heavy rain showers and embedded scattered thunderstorms over the southern Appalac…
Flash Flood · Aug 8, 2024. The remnants Tropical Storm Debby made landfall in the Florida Big Bend on the 5th, lifted steadily northeast across southeast Georgia before turning north through the South Carolina coastal plain and the North Carolina Piedmont on the 7th and 8th. Rainfall amounts of 4 to 7 inches with locally higher amounts resulted in flash flooding across portions of western North Carolina. In addition, very gusty winds cause…
Flash Flood · Sep 9, 2023. Scattered slow-moving thunderstorms developed across the North Carolina Piedmont during the afternoon and evening. One evening storm cluster became nearly stationary across Union County, resulting very heavy rainfall and flash flooding.
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 Union 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.