43 flood insurance claims·$1.3M 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 Le Flore 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 and standard flooding from severe thunderstorms and stalled fronts dominate the flood risks in Le Flore County, with NOAA recording 94 flash flood events and 90 flood events over the last 30 years. These recurring inundations are driven by weather systems such as the stationary front that produced multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms in February 2023, and the severe storms and upper-level disturbances that caused flash flooding in April and May 2025.
Federal insurance data shows that flood risks extend beyond high-risk areas. Properties located in FEMA Zone A account for the highest claim volume with 29 filings averaging $33,895 in payouts and an average recorded water depth of 15 inches. Meanwhile, properties designated as Zone X recorded 7 claims with a higher average payout of $85,608 and an average water depth of 30 inches. Five claims with an unknown zone designation averaged $31,928 with an average water depth of 39 inches, and two claims in unshaded Zone X averaged $18,079 with an average depth of 2 inches.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the most attention to properties in traditional high-risk Zone A, as well as lower-risk Zone X areas where severe storms have produced significant water depths and larger average claim payouts.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
6% of Le Flore County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
31 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 19 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 2015, with 9 claims and $561,316 paid, the year of Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, 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.
51 NOAA storm reports from Le Flore County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Oklahoma flood stories →
32 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 |
| Flooding | May 7, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 7, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | May 16, 2017 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | May 5, 2015 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Dec 5, 2013 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 18, 2013 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
184 since 1996: 94 flash floods and 90 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | May 19, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Apr 4, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Mar 24, 2023 | — |
| Flood | Feb 8, 2023 | — |
| Flood | Mar 3, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Mar 2, 2023 | — |
| Flood | Apr 25, 2022 | — |
| Flood | May 5, 2022 | — |
— = 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 4, 2025. Strong to severe thunderstorms developed across portions of eastern Oklahoma during the early morning hours of the 4th, as lift associated with an approaching upper level disturbance increased north of a stationary front across northeastern Oklahoma and southern Arkansas. The strongest storms produced large hail up to golf ball size and damaging wind gusts.||Additional rounds of strong to severe thunderstorms occu…
Flood · Mar 24, 2023. A cold front moved slowly through eastern Oklahoma on the 23rd and 24th, producing widespread showers and thunderstorms. The slow movement of the front, coupled with steering wind flow in the mid and upper levels of the atmosphere parallel to the front, resulted in thunderstorms moving repeatedly over the same areas. Widespread heavy rainfall from three to six inches fell across portions of southeastern Oklahoma,…
Flood · Feb 8, 2023. A cold front moved through much of eastern Oklahoma on the 7th, and became nearly stationary across southeastern Oklahoma and west central Arkansas through the 8th. This front was the focus for two rounds of showers and thunderstorms across the region. The first round occurred from the evening hours of the 7th through the early morning hours of the 8th, and the second round occurred from the mid morning hours of t…
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 Le Flore 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.