1,103 flood insurance claims·$8.3M paid·2 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 Erie County, Ohio. 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 slow-moving summer thunderstorms and general flooding dominate the flood risk profile in Erie County, Ohio, accounting for 62 of the 78 total flood events recorded over the last 30 years alongside lakeshore floods, storm surges, and coastal floods. Recent events recorded in the NOAA database include a flash flood on July 28, 2025 caused by slow-moving thunderstorms bringing torrential rainfall, as well as flash flood events on August 23, 2023 driven by tropical-like precipitable water values and extreme instability, and a February 17, 2022 event influenced by a southeastward-moving surface cold front.
NFIP insurance claims data demonstrates that properties in Zone A face the highest exposure by volume, recording 881 claims with an average payout of $9,418 and an average recorded water depth of 5 inches. Homeowners and real estate agents in unshaded and shaded Zone X areas have also experienced significant impacts, with Zone X properties recording 39 claims with an average payout of $14,220 and an average water depth of 11 inches, while unshaded Zone X properties filed 131 claims averaging $7,193 with an average water depth of 5 inches. Residents in Zone A and Zone X designations should pay the closest attention to these historical flood risks.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
14% of Erie County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
1,032 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 1985, with 178 claims and $2.6M 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.
32 NOAA storm reports from Erie County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Ohio flood stories →
14 federal disaster declarations since 1969, 2 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms | Jun 29, 2012 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight Line Winds, And Flooding | Jun 21, 2006 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 29, 2005 |
| Snow | Dec 22, 2004 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Aug 27, 2004 |
| Power Outage | Aug 14, 2003 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Aug 7, 1995 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes & Flooding | Jul 12, 1992 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
78 since 1996: 26 flash floods, 36 river or area floods and 16 coastal floods or surges.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jul 28, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 23, 2023 | $2.5M |
| Flash Flood | Aug 23, 2023 | $50,000 |
| Flash Flood | Feb 17, 2022 | $20,000 |
| Flood | May 9, 2021 | — |
| Lakeshore Flood | Apr 23, 2020 | — |
| Lakeshore Flood | Mar 22, 2020 | — |
| Lakeshore Flood | May 16, 2020 | $250,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jul 28, 2025. Placeholder for severe narrative.|Slow moving thunderstorms brought torrential rainfall to much of Erie County, resulting in flash flooding.
Flash Flood · Aug 23, 2023. An anomalously-warm and moist air mass was in place across much of the Central Plains and Midwest, resulting in strong to perhaps extreme instability in addition to tropical-like precipitable water values exceeding 2.0 inches. The Lower Great Lakes region, specifically northern Ohio and Northwest Pennsylvania found itself on the eastern edge of this heat dome. Strong northwest flow aloft persisted along the periph…
Flash Flood · Feb 17, 2022. A southeastward-moving surface cold front across southern Lower MI and northern IN approached northwest OH during the early morning of the 17th. The surface pressure gradient tightened in northwest OH as the cold frontal surface trough interacted with a surface ridge axis that remained anchored near the coast of the Carolinas and Georgia. This tightening surface pressure gradient and apparently relatively-deep mec…
Flood · May 9, 2021. A surface area of low pressure tracked from the high plains crossing northern Ohio on Sunday May 9th. Widespread light to moderate rain developed Sunday morning and was ongoing through much of the day. Temperatures were in the upper 30s to low 40s, and some snowflakes mixed in midday. As the system moved east, rain turned to snow in the primary snowbelt with reports up to 2��� in northwest Pennsylvania and G…
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 Erie 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.