18 flood insurance claims·$550,815 paid·1 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 Henderson 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.
Flash flooding from severe weather and heavy rainfall dominates the flood risk profile in Henderson County, Tennessee, accounting for the vast majority of historical flood events over the past thirty years alongside standard riverine floods and tropical systems. NOAA storm records document significant events such as a slow-moving thunderstorm system on July 1, 2020, that produced over 8 inches of rain and subsequent flash flooding, as well as widespread areal flooding caused by a prolonged period of rainfall along a slow-moving cold front on February 22, 2018. More recently, severe thunderstorm development driven by an approaching cold front and high moisture levels produced flash flooding on March 15, 2025.
National Flood Insurance Program claims data indicates that property owners in both designated flood zones face financial risk, though the distribution shows distinct payout patterns. Zone A claims averaged $29,128 with an average recorded water depth of 2 inches, while Zone X claims averaged $49,560 with an average recorded water depth of 4 inches. Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located within mapped high-risk Special Flood Hazard Areas as well as moderate-to-low risk Zone X parcels where lower-frequency events have still resulted in significant insurance claims.
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 3 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 2021, with 6 claims and $88,511 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.
10 NOAA storm reports from Henderson County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Tennessee flood stories →
27 federal disaster declarations since 1974, 1 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 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Tornado | Mar 1, 2023 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Dec 22, 2022 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes | Dec 10, 2021 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Mar 25, 2021 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | May 3, 2020 |
| Severe Storm And Straight-line Winds | Oct 26, 2019 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
31 since 1996: 25 flash floods and 5 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Mar 15, 2025 | $50,000 |
| Flash Flood | Mar 27, 2021 | $75,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 1, 2020 | $25,000 |
| Flood | Feb 22, 2018 | $15,000 |
| Flood | Mar 1, 2018 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 22, 2016 | $30,000 |
| Flash Flood | Mar 10, 2016 | — |
| Flood | Mar 10, 2016 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Mar 15, 2025. An upper low over the Central Plains moved into the Upper Mississippi Valley during the evening hours of Friday, March 14, 2025. Increasing moisture advection ahead of an approaching cold front lifted dewpoints into the low to mid 60s. This coupled with increasing height falls and a mid-level 80 knot jet rotating around the main upper low supported severe thunderstorm development. Large looping hodographs, MLCAPE…
Flash Flood · Mar 27, 2021. A warm front lifted north across the Mid-South during the morning hours of March 27th. Numerous thunderstorms resulted in heavy rain near the Tennessee/Mississippi line and some flash flooding along with an isolated damaging wind report. The front continued to lift north during the morning along with the complex of showers of thunderstorms. After a brief break during the early afternoon, thunderstorms started to r…
Flash Flood · Jul 1, 2020. Slow-moving thunderstorms developed along an outflow boundary across West Tennessee, near the Tennessee River, and Northeast Mississippi during the early morning hours on July 1, 2020. Some locations picked up more than 8 inches of rain. Meanwhile, a mesoscale convective system that developed over Southeast Nebraska and Northwest Missouri earlier in the day raced southeast and moved through the Mid-South during th…
Flood · Feb 22, 2018. A prolonged period of rainfall was generated along the backside of a slow moving cold front across portions of West Tennessee during the late evening hours of February 21st continuing into February 22nd. Another round of rain moved through parts of West Tennessee during the late evening of February 22 into the morning hours of February 23rd. Areal flooding was common across West Tennessee during this period with m…
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 Henderson 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.