43 flood insurance claims·$772,579 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 Greenwood 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.
Slow-moving thunderstorms and heavy rainfall events drive the flood risk in Greenwood County, where flash flooding and general flooding make up the majority of recorded flood occurrences over the last 30 years, alongside tropical storm impacts. Recent historical events illustrate these hazards, including a slow-moving frontal system in February 2020 that produced intense rain rates and widespread flash flooding, and Tropical Storm Helene in September 2024, which brought bands of heavy rain and resulted in one recorded fatality.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that flood risks extend beyond designated high-risk areas. Properties located in FEMA Zone A account for 28 claims with an average payout of $30,159 and an average recorded water depth of 17 inches. Meanwhile, properties in Zone X account for 15 claims with an average payout of $12,119 and an average recorded water depth of 19 inches. Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay particular attention to properties in both Zone A and Zone X, as both high-risk and moderate-to-low-risk areas have experienced property damage and significant water depths during severe weather events.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
Less than 1% of Greenwood County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
28 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 18 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 2024, with 16 claims and $297,826 paid, the year of Hurricane Debby and Hurricane Helene.
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.
9 NOAA storm reports from Greenwood County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the South Carolina flood stories →
20 federal disaster declarations since 1977, 4 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.
26 since 1996: 14 flash floods and 10 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | May 13, 2025 | $5,000 |
| Tropical Storm | Sep 27, 2024 | $15.0M · 1 killed |
| Flood | Jan 13, 2020 | $4,000 |
| Flood | Feb 6, 2020 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Feb 6, 2020 | $10,000 |
| Tropical Storm | Oct 11, 2018 | — |
| Flash Flood | Dec 30, 2015 | $150,000 |
| Flash Flood | Sep 25, 2015 | $1,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · May 13, 2025. Scattered thunderstorms and storm clusters developed across upstate South Carolina during the evening. One storm produced a brief tornado in Abbeville County. Storms and clusters tended to move slowly, resulting in locally heavy rainfall, with isolated flash flooding developing where multiple storms moved over the same areas.
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…
Flood · Jan 13, 2020. Showers and thunderstorms developed over the South Carolina Piedmont during the early morning hours of the 13th in association with a slow-moving cold front. 1.5 to 3 inches of rain fell over much of Greenwood County over several hours. With relatively poor antecedent conditions in place resulting from rainfall during the 11th and 12th, the additional rainfall caused flooding to develop during mid-to-late morning.
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 Greenwood 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.