3 flood insurance claims·$40,765 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 Grainger County, Tennessee. 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.
Grainger County experiences a flood risk profile dominated by standard riverine floods alongside significant flash flooding threats, driven by a historical mix of 10 general floods, 5 flash floods—resulting in 1 death—and 1 tropical storm over the last 30 years.
Severe weather patterns frequently trigger these events, as demonstrated in recent history. For example, a stalled cold front and moist southwesterly flow produced heavy rains and flooding on February 24, 2022. Earlier, a strong low pressure system drawing moisture from the Gulf of Mexico caused significant rainfall and flooding on February 23, 2019, while a closed low and trailing cold front brought repeat thunderstorm cells and flash flooding on August 14, 2023.
National Flood Insurance Program records reflect claims filed across different zones, including Zone A with 2 claims averaging a $14,757 payout and an average recorded water depth of 0 inches, and Zone X with 1 claim averaging an $11,250 payout and an average recorded water depth of 0 inches. Property owners and real estate professionals working within designated high-risk flood zones, such as Zone A, should pay the closest attention to these localized flood and flash flood hazards.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
The worst year was 2026, with 1 claims and $16,258 paid.
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.
3 NOAA storm reports from Grainger County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Tennessee flood stories →
20 federal disaster declarations since 1973, 4 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 22, 2026 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Apr 2, 2025 |
| Tropical Storm Helene | Sep 26, 2024 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Mar 25, 2021 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Feb 19, 2019 |
| Severe Winter Storm And Flooding | Feb 15, 2015 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And | Jun 18, 2011 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Feb 28, 2011 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
16 since 1996: 5 flash floods and 10 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Aug 14, 2023 | — |
| Flood | Feb 24, 2022 | — |
| Flood | Mar 18, 2021 | — |
| Flood | Feb 23, 2019 | $700,000 |
| Flood | Feb 28, 2011 | $80,000 |
| Flood | Sep 26, 2009 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Sep 16, 2004 | $15,000 |
| Flood | Feb 21, 2003 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Aug 14, 2023. A highly anomalous weather pattern involving a closed low and a trailing cold front brought discrete thunderstorms and multicell clusters in multiple rounds to east Tennessee. Repeat events as well as training of cells resulted in flash flooding, some of it significant.
Flood · Feb 24, 2022. A moist southwesterly flow aloft ran nearly parallel to a stalled cold front near east Tennessee on the 23rd. A surface low near Lake Charles LA would move up the boundary and produce a second round of rains on the 24th.
Flood · Mar 18, 2021. A low pressure system produced high winds in the mountains and foothills of East Tennessee during the early morning hours of March 18. Heavy rainfall also occurred across the southern Tennessee Valley and southern Plateau, resulting in flooding on the evening of the 17th and early morning of the 18th. Later in the day on the 18th, thunderstorms moved across the area, some of which produced large hail.
Flood · Feb 23, 2019. A strong low pressure system moved from northeast New Mexico to the Great Lakes during the period, providing strong southerly flow from the Gulf, and producing significant amounts of rainfall.
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 Grainger 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.