216 flood insurance claims·$8.7M paid·7 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 Nicholas 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 severe weather and storms dominates the flood profile of Nicholas County, accounting for 28 out of 39 recorded flood events over the last 30 years in NOAA data.
Recent occurrences demonstrate how weather systems impact the area. In January 2025, an advancing low pressure system brought widespread rainfall that caused local creeks and streams to quickly spill out of their banks alongside low-lying water issues. Later, a stalled cold front on August 11, 2022, produced heavy downpours with local 24-hour rainfall totals ranging from 1.5 to 3 inches.
NFIP claim records indicate that properties situated in FEMA Zone A face the highest risk, accounting for 146 claims with an average payout of $63,551 and an average recorded water depth of 10 inches. Homeowners and prospective buyers in Zone A should pay the closest attention to flood preparedness, followed by those in Zone X, which logged 40 claims with an average payout of $23,547 and an average recorded water depth of 4 inches.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
1% of Nicholas County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
148 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 2016, with 70 claims and $5.8M paid, the year of Severe Storms, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides.
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.
25 NOAA storm reports from Nicholas County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the West Virginia flood stories →
26 federal disaster declarations since 1967, 7 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 23, 2026 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Apr 2, 2024 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Jun 22, 2016 |
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Jul 10, 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.
39 since 1996: 28 flash floods and 11 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Jan 31, 2025 | $150 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 9, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Feb 6, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 22, 2022 | $250 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 17, 2022 | $250 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 11, 2022 | $3,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 27, 2020 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 18, 2018 | $2,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Jan 31, 2025. An advancing low pressure system set forth ample amounts of lift and moisture to round out the month of January. Widespread rainfall first entered into the southwestern coalfields of West Virginia on the morning of January 31st, and continued to invade northeastward and up into the higher terrain of the state. Local creeks and streams quickly spilled out of their banks on that day in conjunction with high water is…
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…
Flash Flood · Jun 22, 2022. On the afternoon of June 22nd, a cold front made eastward progress into the Middle Ohio Valley, which served as the main contributor behind strong to severe thunderstorms in West Virginia. Optimal moisture levels and warm temperatures ahead of the front helped to promote these storms by the early afternoon on the 22nd, which spanned into the evening time frame as well. ||While an instance of quarter sized hail was…
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 Nicholas 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.