538 flood insurance claims·$7.1M 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 Lorain 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 severe summer thunderstorms and heavy rainfall dominates the flood risk profile in Lorain County, Ohio, accounting for 62 events and two deaths over the last 30 years, alongside 17 general flood events and one death, plus two storm surge or tide events.
Recent weather patterns illustrate this hazard, including multicell thunderstorm clusters along a cold front on May 22, 2024, and organized storms fueled by tropical-like precipitable water values exceeding 2.0 inches on August 23, 2023. These high-moisture systems produce rapid runoff and localized inundation.
National Flood Insurance Program records show that flood impacts extend well beyond high-risk areas. Zone A accounts for 330 claims with an average payout of $18,803 and an average recorded water depth of 11 inches. Meanwhile, properties in Zone X have experienced 117 claims with an average payout of $21,225 and an average recorded water depth of 5 inches, and Zone X_SHADED properties recorded 18 claims with an average payout of $23,207 and an average water depth of 7 inches. Zone X_UNSHADED recorded 60 claims averaging $12,630 with a 7-inch average water depth, and Zone UNKNOWN logged 13 claims averaging $1,541 with a 2-inch average water depth. Homeowners and real estate agents in both designated high-risk zones and lower-risk Zone X areas should pay close attention to these historical water depths and claim frequencies.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
19% of Lorain County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
408 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 2014, with 120 claims and $2.0M 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.
37 NOAA storm reports from Lorain County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Ohio flood stories →
19 federal disaster declarations since 1965, 4 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms | Jun 29, 2012 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 29, 2005 |
| Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, And Mudslides | Dec 22, 2004 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Aug 27, 2004 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | May 18, 2004 |
| Power Outage | Aug 14, 2003 |
| Severe Storms And Tornadoes | Nov 10, 2002 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Aug 7, 1995 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
81 since 1996: 62 flash floods, 17 river or area floods and 2 coastal floods or surges.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | May 22, 2024 | — |
| Flood | Aug 24, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 23, 2023 | $500,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 23, 2023 | $200,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 23, 2023 | $3.0M |
| Flash Flood | Aug 21, 2022 | $800,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 12, 2021 | — |
| Flood | May 9, 2021 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · May 22, 2024. At the surface, an occluded low moved north-northeastward from near western Lake Superior to northern ON, west of James Bay, during the late morning of the 22nd through the wee hours of the morning of the 23rd. Simultaneously, the trailing cold front advanced generally eastward from southeastern Lower MI to the western NY to northeast OH corridor, just east and southeast of Lake Erie. Clusters and lines of multice…
Flood · Aug 24, 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 · 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 · Aug 21, 2022. Weak surface low pressure slowly moved across northwest Ohio over the southern shore of Lake Erie in north central Ohio during the afternoon and evening hours of August 21st. A warm front was oriented from west to east across the area just south of the lakeshore, while a trailing cold front slowly advanced eastward behind the low. In the warm sector, MUCAPE values of 1000-1500 j/kg, weak deep layer shear, and prec…
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 Lorain 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.