260 flood insurance claims·$15.8M paid·3 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 Muskogee 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 and heavy rainfall dominates the flood risk in Muskogee County, accounting for 76 recorded events and 2 deaths over the last 30 years, alongside 23 general flood events and 2 additional deaths. Severe storms and heavy rainfall produced flash flooding during events such as June 2022 and August 2024, while widespread showers caused flooding in November 2024.
National Flood Insurance Program records show claims across multiple zones. Properties in Zone A experienced 156 claims with an average payout of $66,450 and an average recorded water depth of 3 inches. Zone X properties recorded 63 claims with an average payout of $89,516 and an average water depth of 8 inches. Unshaded Zone X properties had 25 claims with an average payout of $36,420 and an average water depth of 3 inches, while shaded Zone X properties saw 14 claims averaging $14,736 with an average water depth of 2 inches.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the most attention to properties in high-risk Zone A, which holds the highest volume of claims, as well as properties located in Zone X where average recorded water depths reached 8 inches during flood events.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
20% of Muskogee County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
195 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 4 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 2019, with 51 claims and $8.2M paid, the year of Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, and Flooding 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.
40 NOAA storm reports from Muskogee County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Oklahoma flood stories →
34 federal disaster declarations since 1973, 3 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 19, 2024 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes | Jun 14, 2023 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 2, 2022 |
| 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 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
99 since 1996: 76 flash floods and 23 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Apr 28, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 11, 2024 | — |
| Flood | Nov 8, 2024 | $15,000 · 2 killed |
| Flash Flood | Jun 10, 2022 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 8, 2022 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 18, 2021 | $5,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 18, 2021 | — |
| Flash Flood | Mar 19, 2020 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Apr 28, 2024. Severe thunderstorms developed during the afternoon of the 27th over central Oklahoma, along and ahead of the dry line, as a strong upper level low pressure system deepened into the Southern Rockies. Strong instability and strong wind shear over eastern Oklahoma supported organized severe thunderstorms, including supercells. The first round of storms affected portions of far northeastern Oklahoma during the early…
Flash Flood · Aug 11, 2024. Showers and thunderstorms produced widespread rainfall amounts of two to three inches, with locally heavy amounts up to five inches, across portions of northeastern Oklahoma during the morning of August 11th. This locally heavy rainfall resulted in isolated areas of flash flooding.
Flood · Nov 8, 2024. Widespread showers and thunderstorms developed across eastern Oklahoma on the 8th, ahead of a strong, slow-moving storm system that translated into the Southern Plains from the Southern Rockies. These showers and thunderstorms produced a corridor of locally heavy rainfall in northeastern Oklahoma, which resulted in some flash flooding.
Flash Flood · Jun 10, 2022. Two organized lines of thunderstorms moved into eastern Oklahoma during the morning of the 10th, one from the southwest and one from the northwest. The strongest thunderstorms produced damaging wind. Locally heavy rainfall also occurred in some locations, with a swath of three to six inches falling across Muskogee, Sequoyah, and northern Le Flore Counties, which subsequently resulted in some flash flooding.
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 Muskogee 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.