88 flood insurance claims·$1.7M paid·4 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 Giles 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 occur frequently in Giles County, driven by a nearly even mix of flash flood and general flood events recorded over the past 30 years by the NOAA Storm Events Database. Recent flooding was documented on February 15, 2025, when a deep upper-level trough and a warm front brought high moisture levels from the Gulf of America into southwest Virginia. Additional flooding and a landslide occurred in and around the Town of Rich Creek on July 30, 2025, resulting from slow-moving thunderstorms with rainfall rates as high as 5 inches per hour.
Federal Emergency Management Agency flood insurance claims data shows impacts across multiple zones, with the highest claim volume concentrated in Zone A at 63 claims averaging $22,649 with an average recorded water depth of 11 inches. Zone X_SHADED recorded 13 claims averaging $18,881 with an average water depth of 16 inches. Zone X recorded 5 claims averaging $38,092 with an average depth of 50 inches. Zone X_UNSHADED recorded 5 claims averaging $42,343 with an average depth of 3 inches, and the unknown zone recorded 2 claims averaging $3,687 with an average depth of 2 inches. Homeowners and real estate agents in high-risk zones, as well as properties experiencing deep water impacts in Zone X, should pay the closest attention to these flood risks.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
22% of Giles County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
81 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 13 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 20 claims and $265,958 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.
48 NOAA storm reports from Giles County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Virginia flood stories →
22 federal disaster declarations since 1972, 4 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 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 29, 2005 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
87 since 1996: 46 flash floods and 41 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Jul 30, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Feb 15, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Feb 15, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Sep 30, 2024 | — |
| Flood | Sep 27, 2024 | — |
| Flood | Sep 25, 2024 | $15,000 |
| Flood | Jan 9, 2024 | — |
| Flood | May 29, 2023 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Jul 30, 2025. Slow moving thunderstorms with rainfall rates as high as 5 inches per hour caused localized flooding in the City of Radford and neighboring Montgomery County. Heavy rain also caused flooding and a landslide in and around the Town of Rich Creek, VA.
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 · 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…
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 Giles 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.