176 flood insurance claims·$1.6M 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 Gallia 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.
Prolonged river flooding and flash flooding from heavy rainfall dominate the flood character of Gallia County. Over the last 30 years, the NOAA Storm Events Database recorded 66 flood events resulting in two deaths, alongside 42 flash flood events. Recent activity includes widespread flooding on February 6, 2025, driven by a low pressure system crossing the Ohio Valley that brought one to two inches of rain to portions of southeast Ohio. Repeated flash flooding also occurred on February 16, 2025, following substantial overnight rainfall from an approaching warm front and a passing low pressure system.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that flood risks impact properties across multiple zones. Zone A accounts
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
1% of Gallia County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
72 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 11 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 1997, with 23 claims and $311,222 paid, the year of Severe Storms and Flooding.
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.
78 NOAA storm reports from Gallia County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Ohio flood stories →
17 federal disaster declarations since 1968, 5 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms, Flooding, And Landslides | Feb 5, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Landslides, And Mudslides | Feb 14, 2018 |
| Severe Storms | Jun 29, 2012 |
| Severe Storms And Straight-line Winds | Jun 29, 2012 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Apr 4, 2011 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 29, 2005 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Aug 27, 2004 |
| Severe Winter Storm And Record/near Record Snow | Feb 14, 2003 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
108 since 1996: 42 flash floods and 66 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | May 30, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 28, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Feb 16, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Apr 7, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Feb 6, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Apr 4, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Apr 3, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Jan 28, 2024 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · May 30, 2025. A warm front lifted into the area on the night of May 29th and remained present overhead until being ushered east by a low the evening of the 30th. Behind this system, a cold front approached from the north and slowly descended southward through the Ohio Valley on the 31st.||Rounds of rain moved across the area on the 30th, with some additional showers lingering overnight. Around an inch of rain fell across southe…
Flash Flood · Jun 28, 2025. On June 28th, a cold front rippled across Ohio and Pennsylvania and then sank into northern West Virginia while high pressure sprawled across the southeastern United States. A low pressure system pushed the front back to the north before pivoting east out of the Great Lakes region and dragging yet another front towards the middle Ohio Valley late in the month. In the midst of this oscillating weather pattern, thun…
Flash Flood · Feb 16, 2025. Light precipitation started to arrive the evening of the 14th, then more substantial rain spread across the area overnight into the 15th as a warm front approached from the south. While precipitation coverage eroded from southeast Ohio and northwest West Virginia during the afternoon, moderate to heavy rain continued to trail across northeast Kentucky, southern West Virginia, and southwest Virginia. This precipit…
Flood · Apr 7, 2025. A line of showers and thunderstorms followed a warm front across the Middle Ohio Valley and Central Appalachians during the morning of April 3rd. A cold front brought more precipitation into the area the night of the 3rd and then stalled over West Virginia through the morning of the 4th. Showers continued in the vicinity of the boundary, which slid to the south the afternoon of the 4th before being lifted north as…
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 Gallia 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.