350 flood insurance claims·$4.1M 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 Sevier 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 heavy rainfall events dominates the local flood hazard profile, accounting for 40 of the 74 total flood events recorded over the past 30 years in Sevier County.
Recent weather data illustrates these recurring risks. In February 2025, severe thunderstorms driven by a lifting warm front and cold front produced multiple hazards, including tornadoes and heavy precipitation. Later that year, slow-moving showers and thunderstorms on September 27, 2025, dropped 3 to 5 inches of rainfall across Sevier and Hawkins counties, resulting in reported flooding. An additional heavy rainfall event on July 9, 2025, generated localized flash floods due to an upper-level shortwave interacting with high atmospheric humidity.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that properties situated in FEMA Zone A have filed the highest volume of claims at 222, with an average payout of $16,104 and an average recorded water depth of 4 inches. Meanwhile, properties located in Zone X experienced 46 claims averaging a payout of $16,302 and an average recorded water depth of 12 inches, while Zone X shaded areas recorded 41 claims with an average payout of $9,520 and a 4-inch average water depth. Zone X unshaded areas logged 37 claims averaging $14,826 with a 10-inch average depth, and Zone V recorded 3 claims averaging $6,323 with a 4-inch average depth. Homeowners and real estate agents in high-risk zones, particularly Zone A and Zone X, should pay close attention to these historical water depths and claim distributions when assessing property risk.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
26% of Sevier County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
303 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 6 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 1994, with 72 claims and $834,389 paid, the year of Extensive Rainfall and Flash 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.
23 NOAA storm reports from Sevier County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Tennessee flood stories →
23 federal disaster declarations since 1972, 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, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Feb 19, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | May 27, 2017 |
| Chimney Top Fire | Nov 28, 2016 |
| Wildfires | Nov 28, 2016 |
| Severe Winter Storm And Flooding | Feb 15, 2015 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
74 since 1996: 40 flash floods and 34 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Sep 27, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 12, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 9, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Feb 6, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Sep 28, 2024 | $20,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 28, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Sep 27, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Sep 26, 2024 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Sep 27, 2025. Numerous showers and thunderstorms developing during the morning of the 27th across eastern Tennessee, lasting into the early afternoon hours. The slow moving nature of these storms produced some rainfall totals in the 3 to 5 inch range for portions of Hawkins and Sevier counties, leading to some reports of flooding there.
Flash Flood · Jul 12, 2025. Diurnal showers and thunderstorms yielded a briefly severe storm in Campbell County.
Flash Flood · Jul 9, 2025. An upper level shortwave combined with an extremely humid atmosphere generated several thunderstorms that produced heavy rainfall yielding a few flash floods along with an isolated severe storm in East Tennessee.
Flash Flood · Feb 6, 2025. Warm front lifted north into Kentucky and severe thunderstorms, including discrete supercells, moved ahead of the cold front into East Tennessee, producing multiple hazards. Two tornadoes occurred in this event, an unusual occurrence for February in East Tennessee. The Morgan County tornado was the first confirmed February tornado in the county and the strongest February tornado in our area since 1993. The 2nd tor…
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 Sevier 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.