1,166 flood insurance claims·$51.5M paid·9 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 Wharton County, Texas. 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 summer thunderstorms dominates the flood history of Wharton County, supported by 28 recorded flash flood events alongside 6 tropical storms and 2 general floods over the last 30 years.
Significant recent events include Tropical Storm Nicholas in September 2021, which brought widespread rainfall totals of 6 to 10 inches and strong wind gusts, and Hurricane Harvey in August 2017, which produced catastrophic flooding with 30 to 60 inches of rain over a five-day period.
Property owners in high-risk Special Flood Hazard Areas should pay the closest attention, specifically the 896 claimants in Zone A who averaged 4 inches of recorded water depth with average payouts of $53,264. Additionally, property owners in moderate-to-low risk zones must remain aware, as demonstrated by 141 claimants in Zone X averaging 3 inches of water depth with average payouts of $72,564, and 64 claimants in unshaded Zone X averaging 6 inches of water depth with payouts averaging $30,444.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
9% of Wharton County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
991 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 4 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 2017, with 488 claims and $36.2M paid, the year of Hurricane Harvey.
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.
8 NOAA storm reports from Wharton County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Texas flood stories →
26 federal disaster declarations since 1990, 9 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Hurricane Beryl | Jul 5, 2024 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Feb 11, 2021 |
| Severe Winter Storms | Feb 11, 2021 |
| Tropical Storms Marco And Laura | Aug 23, 2020 |
| Hurricane Hanna | Jul 25, 2020 |
| Hurricane Harvey | Aug 23, 2017 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Apr 17, 2016 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds And Flooding | May 4, 2015 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
36 since 1996: 28 flash floods and 2 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | May 16, 2021 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Sep 13, 2021 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 5, 2019 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 27, 2017 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Aug 25, 2017 | $200.0M |
| Flash Flood | Jan 18, 2017 | — |
| Flash Flood | Apr 17, 2015 | $1,000 |
| Tropical Storm | Jun 15, 2015 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · May 16, 2021. Strong thunderstorms resulted in Flash Flooding around the Matagorda Bay area. Isolated locations received up to 8-10 inches of rainfall.
Tropical Storm · Sep 13, 2021. Nicholas formed on September 12 in the Southwestern Gulf of Mexico, slowly advancing northeastward along the Middle Texas Coast. It eventually made landfall 10 miles west of Sargent just after midnight on September 14, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 75 mph. Heavy rain bands associated with Nicholas brought widespread rainfall totals of 6 to 10 inches to the Southeast Texas Coast, while strong wind gusts res…
Flash Flood · Jun 5, 2019. A very moist environment, with decent upper level forcing, allowed clusters of near coastal high rainfall bands to develop and slowly move northward.
Flash Flood · Aug 27, 2017. Harvey made landfall as a category 4 hurricane near Rockport, Texas during the evening of August 25th. The storm then weakened to a tropical storm and slowed, looping back and tracking over SE Texas then back over the Gulf of Mexico making a second landfall along the Louisiana coast during the early morning hours of August 30th. Over that 5 day period over Southeast Texas TS Harvey produced catastrophic flooding…
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 Wharton 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.