812 flood insurance claims·$18.9M paid·3 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 Salem 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.
River flooding and heavy rainfall drive the flood character of Salem, with historical records showing 24 floods alongside 10 flash flood events and 1 tropical storm over the last 30 years. Recent significant events include persistent heavy rainfall from a cut-off upper-level low in May 2020 that produced 4-day totals exceeding 11 inches in parts of Roanoke County, as well as moisture-driven flash flooding on February 15, 2025, fueled by a deep upper-level trough and a warm front.
Federal insurance claims data demonstrates that properties in FEMA Zone A face the heaviest and most frequent impacts, accounting for 673 claims with an average payout of $31,455 and an average recorded water depth of 8 inches. By comparison, Zone X properties recorded an average water depth of 15 inches across 42 claims with an average payout of $6,705, while smaller numbers of claims occurred in unshaded Zone X, shaded Zone X, and unknown zones.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located within FEMA Zone A, which holds the vast majority of historical flood claims and payouts in the area.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
4% of Salem city’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
704 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 8 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 1985, with 152 claims and $3.8M paid, the year of Severe Storms & 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.
15 NOAA storm reports from Salem city describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Virginia flood stories →
14 federal disaster declarations since 1972, 3 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 22, 2026 |
| 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 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding From The Remanants Of Hurricane Jeanne | Sep 27, 2004 |
| Severe Winter Storm, Record/near Record Snowfall, Heavy Rain,floodind, And Mudslide | Feb 15, 2003 |
| Blizzard Of 96 (severe Snow Storm) | Jan 6, 1996 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
35 since 1996: 10 flash floods and 24 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Feb 15, 2025 | $20,000 |
| Flash Flood | Feb 15, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Sep 25, 2024 | — |
| Flood | May 20, 2020 | — |
| Flood | Jun 17, 2020 | — |
| Flood | Sep 23, 2018 | — |
| Flood | Sep 17, 2018 | — |
| Flood | Oct 11, 2018 | $250,000 |
— = 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 · Sep 25, 2024. A nearly stationary front that extended south from West Virginia into Western Virginia and North Carolina Piedmont served as the focus for thunderstorm development during the afternoon of September 25. Some clearing allowed for an increase in instability, but not quite enough to support widespread severe thunderstorms. Favorable upper level divergence was also present over the area as an upper low closed off over…
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 Salem 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.