264 flood insurance claims·$2.4M paid·6 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 Calhoun County, West 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 from summer thunderstorms and general flooding dominate the historical record in Calhoun County, with NOAA recording 29 flash flood events and 19 flood events, including one recorded death, over the past 30 years. Recent patterns are illustrated by events such as a February 2025 flood brought by persistent showers and thunderstorms, as well as June and July 2025 flash flood events driven by stalled frontal boundaries, upper-level disturbances, and moisture from approaching weather systems.
NFIP insurance claims data demonstrates that properties mapped in Zone A face the highest concentration of risk, accounting for 170 claims with an average payout of $12,714 and an average recorded water depth of 15 inches. Properties with unknown flood zones also show significant vulnerability with 88 claims averaging an $8,018 payout and an average recorded water depth of 3 inches, while limited claims in Zone X and Zone X unshaded indicate that properties outside designated high-risk areas still experience damaging water depths averaging 11 to 24 inches.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located within Zone A and unmapped or unknown zones, as these areas experience the vast majority of historical claims and recorded flood depths.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
Less than 1% of Calhoun County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
171 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 11 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 56 claims and $482,255 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.
32 NOAA storm reports from Calhoun County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the West Virginia flood stories →
24 federal disaster declarations since 1967, 6 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 23, 2026 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Aug 28, 2023 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Feb 14, 2018 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Apr 13, 2015 |
| Hurricane Sandy | Oct 29, 2012 |
| Severe Storms | Jun 29, 2012 |
| Severe Storms And Straight-line Winds | Jun 29, 2012 |
| Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm | Dec 18, 2009 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
48 since 1996: 29 flash floods and 19 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jun 15, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 9, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Feb 6, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Aug 28, 2023 | $3,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 28, 2023 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 4, 2023 | $3,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 10, 2022 | $3,000 |
| Flash Flood | May 6, 2022 | $2,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jun 15, 2025. The middle of the month proved to be active across the state of West Virginia in response to a stalled frontal boundary across Ohio, southern Pennsylvania, and northern West Virginia while an upper level disturbance pivoted overhead. Showers and storms began to develop in the moist and unstable environment by the night of June 13th. A lull in precipitation occurred the morning of the 14th, then activity redevelope…
Flash Flood · Jul 9, 2025. Active weather returned to West Virginia on July 9th in the midst of a cold front slowly approaching from the west. Additional moisture was ushered into the region from the remnants of a tropical system tracked north through the Carolinas and Virginia. While the bulk of precipitation associated with the tropical system stayed well east of the mountains, scattered showers and thunderstorms sprouted up in the lower…
Flood · Feb 6, 2025. Showers first entered into West Virginia on the evening of February 5th as a disturbance skirted by to the south. Precipitation continued into the next day, in addition to a few severe thunderstorms that developed ahead of a cold front in the early afternoon. Strong wind gusts from storms caused numerous downed trees and power line damage across Boone and Lincoln Counties during the early afternoon of February 6th…
Flood · Aug 28, 2023. During the early morning hours of August 28th, a ribbon of heavy showers spawned just above the southern West Virginia coalfields and propagated northeastward into the central portions of the state. An inverted surface trough feature festered over the Central Appalachians and was the primary culprit behind this swath of slow moving and heavy rainfall. Precipitation amounts recorded by local weather stations were o…
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 Calhoun 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.