4 flood insurance claims·$50,029 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 Douglas County, Washington. 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.
In flood insurance claims here that reported a flood depth, the average was 4 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 1995, with 2 claims and $31,853 paid.
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.
5 NOAA storm reports from Douglas County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the Washington flood stories →
19 federal disaster declarations since 1972, 3 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Cold Springs/pearl Hill Fire | Sep 7, 2020 |
| Wildfires And Straight-line Winds | Sep 1, 2020 |
| Road 11 Fire | Jul 11, 2020 |
| Grass Valley Fire | Aug 11, 2018 |
| Chelan Hills Fire | Jul 27, 2018 |
| Chelan Fire Complex | Aug 14, 2015 |
| Wildfires | Aug 13, 2015 |
| Barker Canyon Fire | Sep 9, 2012 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
11 since 1996: 8 flash floods and 3 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jul 10, 2023 | $1.0M |
| Flash Flood | Jun 5, 2022 | $15,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 10, 2019 | $500 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 10, 2019 | $2,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 2, 2019 | $1,000 |
| Flood | Mar 9, 2016 | $2,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 29, 2015 | — |
| Flood | Feb 7, 2015 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jul 10, 2023. A strong system moved through Eastern Washington and brought scattered thunderstorms. The main areas stretched along Highway 2 from Waterville Plateau to Northern Spokane County.
Flash Flood · Jun 5, 2022. Another round widespread stratiform rain showers impacted the Inland Northwest. With the ground already saturated from previous system, the rain began to impact the region quickly with three quarters to an inch of rain.
Flash Flood · Aug 10, 2019. The weather pattern on August 10th featured a very moist and unstable air mass with a passing upper level low pressure. These elements promoted widespread thunderstorms with heavy rain which produced Flash Flooding over potions of eastern Washington. Local observations indicated some of these slow moving storms produced from 1 to locally in excess of 5 inches of rain. Particularly hard hit was the Wenatchee area w…
Flash Flood · Jul 2, 2019. During the afternoon of July 2nd numerous slow moving thunderstorms containing heavy rain formed near the center of an upper level low pressure over the western Columbia Basin and the east slopes of the Cascade Mountains. A rich moisture feed wrapping around this upper low pressure allowed some of these storms to produce heavy rainfall over limited areas. A spotter near Waterville reported 1.29 inches of rain 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 Douglas 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.