329 flood insurance claims·$9.7M 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 Richland 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 summer thunderstorms dominates the flood risk profile in Richland County, Ohio, accounting for 39 events and 1 death over the last 30 years alongside 17 general flood events. Recent activity includes severe flash flooding driven by tropical-like precipitable water values in August 2023, as well as multicell thunderstorms along a stalled cold front in July 2021.
National Flood Insurance Program records show that flood impacts extend across multiple zones. Properties in high-risk Zone A have experienced the highest volume of claims at 212, with an average payout of $39,149 and an average recorded water depth of 12 inches. Meanwhile, properties in Zone X recorded 48 claims with an average payout of $35,768 and an average water depth of 12 inches, while Zone UNKNOWN accounted for 66 claims with an average payout of $9,155 and an average water depth of 3 inches.
Homeowners and real estate agents in high-risk Zone A and standard Zone X should pay the closest attention to flood preparedness, as properties in both zones have experienced average water depths of 12 inches during flood events.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
1% of Richland County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
215 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 10 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 2007, with 102 claims and $5.7M paid, the year of Severe Storms, Flooding, and Tornadoes.
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 Richland County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Ohio flood stories →
18 federal disaster declarations since 1969, 1 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Tornadoes | Mar 14, 2024 |
| Severe Storms | Jun 29, 2012 |
| Record Snow And Near Record Snow | Mar 7, 2008 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, And Tornadoes | Aug 20, 2007 |
| 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 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
56 since 1996: 39 flash floods and 17 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Aug 24, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 23, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 16, 2021 | — |
| Flood | May 9, 2021 | $2,000 |
| Flood | May 18, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 21, 2019 | $20,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 16, 2019 | $2,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 16, 2019 | $80,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash 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 · Jul 16, 2021. A cold front moved southeastward from Lower Michigan to Lake Erie during the evening and overnight of the 15th and then stalled in vicinity of the southern lakeshore by daybreak. This was in response to one surface low moving northeastward from southwestern Quebec toward the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, while another low moved along the front from eastern Iowa to near the Michigan/Indiana border. Ahead of th…
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 Richland 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.