2 flood insurance claims·$3,227 paid·2 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 Galax city, 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 from summer thunderstorms and severe weather dominate the flood history of Galax City. Over the last 30 years, the NOAA Storm Events Database recorded 15 flood events, 14 flash flood events, and 1 tropical storm. Recent documented events include a heavy rainfall event on September 10, 2023, which produced rainfall rates of 3 to 4 inches per hour, and a flash flood on August 1, 2025, driven by training storm cells with rainfall rates as high as 4.5 inches per hour. Flooding is also driven by larger regional systems, such as the January 9, 2024 system carrying moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and the inland impacts of Hurricane Helene on September 27, 2024.
NFIP claims data from FEMA reflects minimal historical payouts across mapped zones in Galax City. Zone A recorded 1 claim with an average payout of $151 and an average recorded water depth of 1 inch. Zone X_SHADED recorded 1 claim with an average payout of $3,076 and an average recorded water depth of 2 inches. Residents with properties situated in Zone A and Zone X_SHADED should pay the most attention to local flood risks given their historical claim activity.
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 2 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.
12 NOAA storm reports from Galax city describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Virginia flood stories →
16 federal disaster declarations since 1972, 2 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 22, 2026 |
| Post-tropical Cyclone Helene | Sep 25, 2024 |
| Tropical Storm Helene | Sep 25, 2024 |
| Tropical Storm Michael | Oct 9, 2018 |
| Hurricane Florence | Sep 13, 2018 |
| Hurricane Sandy | Oct 26, 2012 |
| Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm | Dec 18, 2009 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Jun 23, 2006 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
30 since 1996: 14 flash floods and 15 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Aug 1, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Sep 27, 2024 | — |
| Flood | Jan 9, 2024 | — |
| Flood | Sep 10, 2023 | — |
| Tropical Storm | Oct 29, 2020 | $5,000 |
| Flash Flood | Apr 19, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Sep 16, 2018 | — |
| Flash Flood | Oct 11, 2018 | $455,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Aug 1, 2025. A slow-moving line of storms passed across the City of Galax and neighboring Grayson County just before 2 pm EDT during the afternoon of August 1st, with multiple cells within the line observed training across the city. The line weakened and exited the area by around 3:30 pm EDT. Rainfall rates were observed to be as high as 4.5 inches per hour in a couple areas of the city, with storm total amounts per multiple…
Flood · Sep 27, 2024. Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida as a powerful Category 4 hurricane late Thursday, September 26, and moved quickly northward into the southeastern states, and then turned slightly northwestward towards the southern Appalachian Mountains overnight into Friday morning, weakening as it moved over land. Helene���s intensity and fast forward motion led to impacts being felt well inland, from the Florida…
Flood · Jan 9, 2024. A deep, negatively tilted upper level trough and associated occluded front passed from the central Mississippi River Valley on January 9th toward the lower New England region by the morning of the 10th. Strong southerly wind flow ahead of the upper trough carried deep moisture from the Gulf of Mexico northward into the Carolinas and the lower Mid-Atlantic. Precipitable water values ranged from 1.1 inches across…
Flood · Sep 10, 2023. A strong thunderstorm produced heavy rainfall over the City of Galax, VA at rates of 3 to 4 inches per hour. Multiple personal weather stations just north of the downtown observed about 2 inches of rainfall as a storm total amount, with the one inch falling during the first 20 minutes of the storm.
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 Galax city 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.