234 flood insurance claims·$3.5M paid·8 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 Tioga County, Pennsylvania. 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 general river flooding driven by slow-moving storms dominate the flood profile of Tioga County, PA, with NOAA Storm Events data recording 27 flash floods, 22 floods, and 1 tropical storm over the last 30 years. Recent events illustrate this pattern, including a heavy rainfall event on May 5, 2025, driven by low pressure and a stationary front that caused flooding and closed State Route 249 in Deerfield Township, as well as severe thunderstorms that produced flash flooding on July 17 and 18, 2021.
Federal Emergency Management Agency claim records show that properties in high-risk Zone A face the heaviest impacts, accounting for 138 claims with an average payout of $24,493 and an average recorded water depth of 14 inches. Homeowners and real estate agents in Zone A should pay the closest attention to flood risk. However, properties outside designated high-risk zones also experience losses; Zone X properties recorded 48 claims with an average payout of $14,210 and an average water depth of 3 inches, while shaded Zone X properties averaged 5 inches of water depth across 14 claims, and unshaded Zone X properties averaged 12 inches of water depth across 7 claims.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
13% of Tioga County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
159 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 1996, with 50 claims and $493,985 paid, the year of Severe Storms and Flooding and Severe Thunderstorms, High Winds,rain, 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.
10 NOAA storm reports from Tioga County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Pennsylvania flood stories →
20 federal disaster declarations since 1972, 8 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Tropical Storm Debby | Aug 9, 2024 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Aug 10, 2018 |
| Hurricane Sandy | Oct 26, 2012 |
| Remnants Of Tropical Storm Lee | Sep 3, 2011 |
| Tropical Storm Lee | Sep 3, 2011 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Apr 25, 2011 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, And Mudslides | Jun 23, 2006 |
| Hurricane Katrina | Aug 29, 2005 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
50 since 1996: 27 flash floods and 22 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | May 6, 2025 | — |
| Flood | May 5, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 27, 2021 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 18, 2021 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 17, 2021 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 13, 2021 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 12, 2021 | $300,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 9, 2021 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · May 6, 2025. Low pressure stationed across the Delmarva during the early morning hours of May 6, 2025 began to lift north and east during the afternoon hours, allowing portions of eastern Pennsylvania to have a brief period of residence time in the warm sector. This residence time allowed for destabilization ahead of a surface cold front, with ample shear in place to allow for a line of showers and thunderstorms to slowly lift…
Flood · May 5, 2025. Low pressure stationed across western Pennsylvania with a stationary front stationed across the southern tier allowed for widespread rain across the northern tier throughout the day on May 5, 2025. Ample low-level moisture, with relatively high precipitable water values (ranging between 1.00 and 1.50 inches), and robust moisture transport from the south allowed for this heavy rainfall to cause flooding in Tioga Co…
Flash Flood · Aug 27, 2021. Scattered storms developed in a warm, humid airmass to the south of a stalled frontal boundary over southern New York state during the late afternoon and early evening of August 27, 2021. A couple of these storms produced wind damage in the Lower Susquehanna Valley. Flash flooding was also reported in Tioga County near Mansfield.
Flash Flood · Jul 18, 2021. Scattered showers and thunderstorms develop during the early afternoon hours of July 17, 2021 across western Pennsylvania and in the Lower Susquehanna Valley in an anomalously humid airmass ahead of an approaching cold front. The storms over the Lower Susquehanna Valley developed on a weak boundary in a high CAPE environment, and produced sporadic wind damage before moving to the east. The storms over western Penn…
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 Tioga 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.