240 flood insurance claims·$3.2M paid·1 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 Marion 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.
Flooding from standard floods and summer thunderstorms dominates Marion County, where the NOAA Storm Events Database records 48 flood events and 15 flash flood events over the last 30 years. Heavy rainfall systems frequently produce significant water accumulation, as demonstrated in May 2020 when slow-moving storms dropped rain rates of two inches an hour or higher. Heavy rainfall also occurred in May 2021 when a surface low-pressure system brought total rainfall amounts of 2 to 3 inches. Additionally, training thunderstorms tracked over the city of Marion in June 2021, dropping 1.5 to 2 inches of rainfall in a two-hour period.
Property owners in FEMA Zone A should pay the most attention to flood risk, as this zone accounts for the vast majority of the county's National Flood Insurance Program claims with 197 filings averaging an $18,625 payout and an average recorded water depth of 9 inches. Residents in Zone X properties also face documented risk, having filed 23 claims with an average payout of $16,504 and an average recorded water depth of 7 inches.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
5% of Marion County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
207 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 8 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 2011, with 59 claims and $1.3M 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.
22 NOAA storm reports from Marion County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Ohio flood stories →
12 federal disaster declarations since 1977, 1 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms | Jun 29, 2012 |
| Record Snow And Near Record Snow | Mar 7, 2008 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 29, 2005 |
| Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, And Mudslides | Dec 22, 2004 |
| Snow | Dec 22, 2004 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Aug 27, 2004 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Aug 7, 1995 |
| Severe Storms & Flooding | Jul 1, 1987 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
63 since 1996: 15 flash floods and 48 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | May 10, 2021 | — |
| Flood | May 9, 2021 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 3, 2021 | — |
| Flood | May 19, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Sep 7, 2020 | $150,000 |
| Flood | Jan 24, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Jun 19, 2019 | $25,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 19, 2019 | $75,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · May 10, 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…
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…
Flash Flood · Jun 3, 2021. A warm front lifted northward across northern OH early in the day on the 3rd, as low pressure lifted northeast from the lower OH valley. As the low and attendant cold front slowly moved through the area, showers and thunderstorms developed across the region. PWAT values near 1.5 were present in the warm sector, with modest instability allowing for efficient rainfall processes. Training thunderstorms tracked over t…
Flood · May 19, 2020. A slow moving upper low over Illinois combined with a conveyor belt of humid air over Ohio supported widespread showers and thunderstorms over southern and central Ohio on the afternoon and evening of the 18th. The weather conditions supported not severe weather but heavy rain. Rain rates of 2 inches an hour or higher were observed with storms that trained, or repeated over the same areas. Overnight the low sank…
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 Marion 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.