30 flood insurance claims·$414,971 paid·6 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 Campbell County, Virginia. 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 and river flooding dominate the flood risk profile in Campbell County, Virginia, based on historical storm event data over the last 30 years comprising 68 flash flood events, 42 flood events, and 3 tropical storm events.
Recent records from February 2025 demonstrate the meteorological drivers behind these events, specifically deep upper-level troughs drawing moisture from the western Gulf of America and pooling it along a warm front stretching from Kentucky into southwest Virginia. During this February 2025 event, precipitable water values significantly increased from morning to early afternoon, leading to recorded flash flood and flood incidents.
Properties in FEMA-designated Zone A face the highest frequency of insurance claims, with 16 claims averaging a payout of $24,893 and an average recorded water depth of 5 inches. However, properties outside high-risk zones also experience significant impacts; notably, unshaded Zone X properties averaged 39 inches of recorded water depth across claims, while shaded Zone X properties averaged 4 inches, and standard Zone X properties averaged 2 inches. Homeowners and real estate agents near designated special flood hazard areas, as well as those in moderate-to-low risk zones with a history of localized water accumulation, should pay close attention to these historical claim depths when evaluating property risk.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
20% of Campbell County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
20 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 7 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 2018, with 5 claims and $50,528 paid, the year of Hurricane Florence and Tropical Storm Michael.
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.
67 NOAA storm reports from Campbell County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Virginia flood stories →
24 federal disaster declarations since 1969, 6 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 22, 2026 |
| Severe Winter Storms And Flooding | Feb 10, 2025 |
| Severe Winter Storms | Feb 11, 2021 |
| Tropical Storm Michael | Oct 9, 2018 |
| Hurricane Florence | Sep 13, 2018 |
| Hurricane Sandy | Oct 26, 2012 |
| Severe Storms And Straight-line Winds | Jun 29, 2012 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 29, 2005 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
113 since 1996: 68 flash floods and 42 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Feb 15, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Feb 15, 2025 | $5,000 |
| Flood | Feb 15, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Sep 30, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Sep 21, 2024 | — |
| Flood | Jan 10, 2024 | — |
| Flood | Jan 9, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jan 9, 2024 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Feb 15, 2025. A deep upper level trough was observed exiting the southern Rockies during the morning of February 15th, with southwesterly windflow ahead of the trough allowing for a fetch of deep moisture from the western Gulf of America. This moisture pooled along a warm front situated across from Kentucky into southwest Virginia, where precipitable water values increased from 0.6 to 0.7 inches at 7 am that morning, to around…
Flood · Feb 15, 2025. A deep upper level trough was observed exiting the southern Rockies during the morning of February 15th, with southwesterly windflow ahead of the trough allowing for a fetch of deep moisture from the western Gulf of America. This moisture pooled along a warm front situated across from Kentucky into southwest Virginia, where precipitable water values increased from 0.6 to 0.7 inches at 7 am that morning, to around…
Flash Flood · Sep 30, 2024. Multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms associated with the remnant moisture of Tropical Storm Helene passed across the region, producing localized heavy rainfall across soils that were already moist from previous rainfall. Rainfall rates in several of the storms that developed ranged from between three and five inches per hour and, in a few cases, were higher. Creeks that were already high from recent rainfa…
Flash Flood · Sep 21, 2024. An approaching cold front, supported aloft by the passage of an upper level disturbance, triggered thunderstorms across the Piedmont of central Virginia during the evening of September 21st. Several rounds of these storms passed from the City of Lynchburg southeast across Campbell County. Rain was observed falling at rates of three to locally five inches per hour in these storms, with rainfall totals ranging from…
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 Campbell 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.