10 flood insurance claims·$202,877 paid·3 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 Union 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.
Union County experiences a flood risk profile dominated by general riverine flooding, supported by 11 flood events and 6 flash flood events over the last 30 years alongside 1 tropical storm event. Severe rainfall is typically driven by stalled cold fronts and moist air masses, as occurred during heavy rain events in February 2018 and February 2023.
National Flood Insurance Program records show claims filed across multiple zones with varying impacts. Zone X accounts for 5 claims with an average payout of $23,092 and an average recorded water depth of 0 inches. Zone A accounts for 4 claims with an average payout of $21,278 and an average recorded water depth of 8 inches. Zone X_UNSHADED accounts for 1 claim with an average payout of $2,302 and an average recorded water depth of 3 inches.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the most attention to properties located within designated special flood hazard areas like Zone A, where claims recorded measurable water depths averaging 8 inches, as well as properties in moderate-to-low risk zones where heavy multi-inch rainfall events can still produce costly property damage.
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 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 2003, with 2 claims and $8,550 paid, the year of Severe Storms and 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.
2 NOAA storm reports from Union County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Tennessee flood stories →
16 federal disaster declarations since 1973, 3 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, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Feb 19, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Feb 28, 2011 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 29, 2005 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Feb 14, 2003 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Jul 27, 2001 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Dec 23, 1998 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
18 since 1996: 6 flash floods and 11 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Feb 16, 2023 | — |
| Flood | Feb 23, 2022 | — |
| Flash Flood | Feb 6, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Feb 11, 2018 | — |
| Flash Flood | Mar 1, 2017 | — |
| Flood | Jan 30, 2013 | — |
| Flood | Feb 28, 2011 | $1.5M |
| Flood | Sep 26, 2009 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Feb 16, 2023. Heavy rain was triggered by a cold front slowly displacing a warm sector whose precipitable water anomaly was near the maximum for the day.
Flood · Feb 23, 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.
Flash Flood · Feb 6, 2019. A warm, moist, Gulf air mass was in place across the area, with a weak surface trough located over the Cumberland Plateau, which helped focus rainfall amounts of a few inches over parts of northeast Tennessee.
Flood · Feb 11, 2018. At 500 MB, a strong western Atlantic high pressure ridge and a deep low pressure trough over the High Plains were denoted at the surface by a slow-moving cold front over the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys. This resulted in unseasonably warm and humid conditions across east Tennessee and southwest Virginia, and widespread heavy rains.
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 Union 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.