6 flood insurance claims·$46,078 paid·5 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 Cherokee County, South Carolina. 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 weather systems and tropical storm remnants dominates the flood character of Cherokee County. NOAA records show 9 flash flood events, 6 general flood events, and 2 tropical storm events over the last 30 years. Recent incidents include a major frontal system on January 9, 2024, which brought 3 to 5 inches of rain in roughly 12 hours, and heavy rainfall from Tropical Cyclone Helene on September 27, 2024. Another notable flash flood occurred on February 6, 2020, driven by an extended period of moderate to heavy rainfall and slow-moving frontal systems.
Federal insurance data reveals varied impacts across different flood zones. Zone X_SHADED recorded 2 claims with an average payout of $13,576 and an average recorded water depth of 0 inches. Zone X recorded 2 claims with an average payout of $7,986 and an average water depth of 1 inch. Zone X_UNSHADED recorded 1 claim with an average payout of $1,161 and an average water depth of 7 inches. Zone A recorded 1 claim with an average payout of $1,793 and an average water depth of 14 inches.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the most attention to properties located in designated special flood hazard areas like Zone A, as well as properties in shaded and unshaded Zone X areas that have experienced structural water damage and insurance claims during heavy precipitation events.
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 7 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 2004, with 1 claims and $17,165 paid, the year of Tropical Storm Frances.
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.
8 NOAA storm reports from Cherokee County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the South Carolina flood stories →
24 federal disaster declarations since 1977, 5 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 21, 2026 |
| Hurricane Helene | Sep 25, 2024 |
| Hurricane Debby | Aug 4, 2024 |
| Hurricane Idalia | Aug 29, 2023 |
| Hurricane Ian | Sep 25, 2022 |
| Hurricane Dorian | Aug 31, 2019 |
| Hurricane Florence | Sep 8, 2018 |
| Hurricane Irma | Sep 6, 2017 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
17 since 1996: 9 flash floods and 6 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Tropical Storm | Sep 27, 2024 | $5.0M |
| Flash Flood | Sep 27, 2024 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jan 9, 2024 | $50,000 |
| Flood | Feb 6, 2020 | $50,000 |
| Flash Flood | Feb 6, 2020 | $50,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 7, 2019 | $1,000 |
| Tropical Storm | Oct 11, 2018 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 3, 2013 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Tropical Storm · Sep 27, 2024. Tropical Cyclone Helene began organizing over the western Caribbean on the 23rd and 24th of September before rapidly intensifying as it moved north through the eastern Gulf of Mexico on the 25th and 26th. A plume of moisture extending from the intensifying storm interacted with a slow-moving cold front to produce a band of widespread heavy rain showers and embedded scattered thunderstorms over the southern Appalac…
Flash Flood · Sep 27, 2024. Tropical Cyclone Helene began organizing over the western Caribbean on the 23rd and 24th of September before rapidly intensifying as it moved north through the eastern Gulf of Mexico on the 25th and 26th. A plume of moisture extending from the intensifying storm interacted with a slow-moving cold front to produce a band of widespread heavy rain showers and embedded scattered thunderstorms over the southern Appalac…
Flash Flood · Jan 9, 2024. A major/complex frontal system brought widespread rain with embedded thunderstorms to upstate South Carolina, mainly during the late morning and afternoon of the 9th. Widespread rainfall amounts of 3 to 5 inches (with locally higher amounts) in around 12 hours resulted in numerous reports of flooding. Isolated severe thunderstorms also resulted in a a few damaging wind gusts reports over the Piedmont.
Flood · Feb 6, 2020. Unusually high levels of moisture for early February combined with a slow-moving frontal system to produce an extended period of moderate to heavy rainfall across Upstate South Carolina from the morning of the 5th until the early morning hours of the 7th. Intense rain rates associated with bands of heavy rain showers and embedded thunderstorms developing along the front during the morning and afternoon of the 7th…
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 Cherokee 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.