3 flood insurance claims·$46,010 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 Latimer County, Oklahoma. 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 thunderstorms dominates the flood profile of Latimer County, Oklahoma, accounting for 45 recorded events and 1 death over the last 30 years compared to 4 standard flood events. Severe weather patterns frequently drive these conditions, such as severe thunderstorms developing along a dry line and upper-level disturbances in May 2025, or storms interacting with a warm front and cold front in April 2017. Additional heavy rainfall events occurred in June 2017 as storms moved southeast from Kansas into eastern Oklahoma.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that flood risks extend to specific designated areas, with Zone A recording 3 claims that resulted in an average payout of $23,005 and an average recorded water depth of 2 inches. Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the most attention to properties located within Zone A, where rising water from intense local storms presents a documented risk of property damage and financial loss.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
In flood insurance claims here that reported a flood depth, the average was 2 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.
10 NOAA storm reports from Latimer County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Oklahoma flood stories →
30 federal disaster declarations since 1968, 4 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Feb 8, 2021 |
| Severe Winter Storms | Feb 8, 2021 |
| Severe Winter Storms And Flooding | Dec 26, 2015 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | May 5, 2015 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 18, 2013 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 31, 2011 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 28, 2010 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 10, 2008 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
49 since 1996: 45 flash floods and 4 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | May 19, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Apr 29, 2017 | — · 1 killed |
| Flash Flood | Jun 17, 2017 | — |
| Flood | Dec 28, 2015 | — |
| Flood | Dec 27, 2015 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 17, 2015 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jan 25, 2012 | $25,000 |
| Flash Flood | Mar 20, 2012 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · May 19, 2025. Severe thunderstorms developed over central Oklahoma along and ahead of a dry line during the afternoon of the 19th, as an upper level disturbance approached the Southern Plains. These thunderstorms moved northeast off the dry line and across portions of eastern Oklahoma during the mid afternoon and evening hours. The atmosphere east of the dry line across eastern Oklahoma became very unstable during the afternoon…
Flash Flood · Apr 29, 2017. Strong to severe thunderstorms developed during the late evening hours of the 28th over portions of eastern Oklahoma, along and north of a warm front that had moved into the area during the day. These storms produced a strong tornado, hail up to baseball size, damaging wind, and locally heavy rainfall through the early morning hours of the 29th. ||Another round of severe weather developed during the afternoon hour…
Flash Flood · Jun 17, 2017. Strong to severe thunderstorms developed along a frontal boundary located across southeastern Nebraska during the afternoon hours of the 16th. These storms moved south and southeast across Kansas overnight on the 16th, and spread into eastern Oklahoma during the morning hours of the 17th. The strongest storms produced damaging wind and hail up to quarter size.||The morning storms dissipated as they moved into sout…
Flood · Dec 28, 2015. A strong upper level low pressure system moved from the desert southwest into the Southern Plains in late December. Unseasonably moist air was in place across the region ahead of this approaching system as Pacific moisture in the mid and upper levels combined with very moist air in the low levels from the Gulf of Mexico. Strong atmospheric lift from the approaching upper level low and a warm front moving across th…
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 Latimer 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.