94 flood insurance claims·$1.2M paid·5 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 Craig 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 general river flooding driven by severe thunderstorms and stationary weather systems dominate the flood risk in Craig County. Over the last 30 years, the NOAA Storm Events Database has recorded 13 flash flood events, 9 flood events, and 1 tropical storm event. Recent historical examples include multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms driven by an upper low in May 2025, and a line of thunderstorms that developed over the eastern portion of the county in June 2025 along a stationary front.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that property damage occurs in both designated high-risk and moderate-to-low risk areas. Zone A properties account for 48 claims with an average payout of $15,949 and an average recorded water depth of 4 inches. Zone X properties account for 42 claims with an average payout of $19,655 and an average recorded water depth of 15 inches. An additional 4 claims in unknown zones averaged $13,613 with an average recorded water depth of 8 inches.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located within Zone A and Zone X, as both areas have accumulated significant claim histories and recorded water depths during past flooding events.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
Less than 1% of Craig County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
48 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 2004, with 36 claims and $779,069 paid, the year of Severe Storms and Flooding From The Remanants Of Hurricane Jeanne.
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.
13 NOAA storm reports from Craig County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Virginia flood stories →
26 federal disaster declarations since 1972, 5 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 22, 2026 |
| Severe Winter Storms And Flooding | Feb 10, 2025 |
| Post-tropical Cyclone Helene | Sep 25, 2024 |
| Tropical Storm Helene | Sep 25, 2024 |
| Hurricane Florence | Sep 13, 2018 |
| Hurricane Sandy | Oct 26, 2012 |
| Severe Storms And Straight-line Winds | Jun 29, 2012 |
| Severe Winter Storms And Snowstorms | Feb 5, 2010 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
23 since 1996: 13 flash floods and 9 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jun 16, 2025 | $100,000 |
| Flash Flood | May 13, 2025 | — |
| Flood | May 20, 2020 | $50,000 |
| Flood | Jun 17, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Apr 13, 2020 | $12,000 |
| Flood | Sep 17, 2018 | $9,650 |
| Flood | May 25, 2017 | — |
| Flood | May 20, 2017 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jun 16, 2025. A line of thunderstorms developed over eastern Craig County at around 4:00 PM EDT and quickly spread eastward over the Catawba Creek basin in neighboring Botetourt County. Multiple cells trained over this area through around 6:45 PM EDT before exiting to the south. These storms formed along a stationary front situated across central Virginia. Convergence along the front provided focus for initiation of the storms…
Flash Flood · May 13, 2025. An upper low positioned over the Tennessee Valley, with numerous shortwaves rotating through it, brought several rounds of showers and thunderstorms to the area for a few days. Surface low pressure over the Midwest also helped to prompt the development of thunderstorms. A plume of moisture pushed northward into the area from the Carolinas, and helped convective initiation, despite some dry air also in the area. SB…
Flood · May 20, 2020. An upper-level low became cut-off over the southern Appalachian region for several days leading to persistent rainfall and eventually some flooding. Four-day (96-hour) rainfall amounts ending at 800 AM EDT on May 22nd ranged from 3 to over 12 inches in the most favored locations. Some of the 11-inch+, 4-day rain totals in Roanoke County were within the 200-year recurrence interval (9.78 to 11.8 inches) per NOAA At…
Flood · Jun 17, 2020. A broad closed upper low drifted across South Carolina and northwest back into southwest Virginia and West Virginia bringing persistent rainfall that eventually led to flooding. There were repeated rounds of heavy rainfall with widespread amounts of 2 to 5 inches, with isolated totals over 10 inches in a 3-day period in parts of Halifax County, VA.
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 Craig 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.