99 flood insurance claims·$825,240 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 Preston 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 dominates the flood character of Preston County. Over the last 30 years, the NOAA Storm Events Database records 72 flash flood events compared to 16 standard flood events. Recent events illustrate this pattern, including slow-moving storms on June 15, 2025 that produced rainfall rates of 2 to 4 inches per hour along a stationary boundary, and moisture-rich thunderstorms on July 27, 2025 that generated rainfall rates up to 2 inches per hour with storm totals reaching 3 to 4 inches.
National Flood Insurance Program records show claims concentrated heavily in specific zones. Zone A accounts for 57 claims with an average payout of $10,157 and an average recorded water depth of 7 inches. Properties with unknown flood zones also face significant risk, registering 26 claims with an average payout of $11,101 and an average recorded water depth of 6 inches.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located within Zone A, where the highest volume of claims occurs, as well as properties with unknown or unmapped flood zones that lack established base flood elevations.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
15% of Preston County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
67 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 7 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 1996, with 25 claims and $150,958 paid, the year of 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.
28 NOAA storm reports from Preston County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the West Virginia flood stories →
24 federal disaster declarations since 1972, 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 29, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Feb 14, 2018 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Jul 28, 2017 |
| Hurricane Sandy | Oct 29, 2012 |
| Severe Storms | Jun 29, 2012 |
| Severe Storms And Straight-line Winds | Jun 29, 2012 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
88 since 1996: 72 flash floods and 16 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jul 27, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 27, 2025 | $1,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 15, 2025 | $15,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 15, 2025 | $5,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 15, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 7, 2025 | $5,000 |
| Flood | Apr 3, 2024 | $1,000 |
| Flood | Apr 3, 2024 | $250,000 |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jul 27, 2025. Morning showers congealed into a cluster of thunderstorms along the Mason Dixon line in the early afternoon hours. A very moisture rich environment with mid 70s dew points, highly anomalous PWAT values up to 2.3, and 3000 J/kg MUCAPE resulted in flash flooding. Observed and radar estimated rainfall rates reached as high as 2 inches per hour and storm totals of 3-4 inches around urban areas.
Flash Flood · Jun 15, 2025. Following the catastrophic flooding that occurred in portions of Wheeling, WV late on the 14th, another round of slow moving storms developed along a stationary boundary over portions of northern West Virginia. With climatologically high precipitable water values, rainfall was efficient, allowing for 2-4 inch/hr rates. This impacted several counties in northern West Virginia but the hardest hit was the city of Fai…
Flash Flood · Jun 7, 2025. A very moist airmass and a nearly stationary front resulted in rounds of thunderstorms that produced flash flooding on June 6th into the morning hours of the 7th. This included reports of flooding in Marion, Monongalia, and Preston counties in West Virginia.
Flood · Apr 3, 2024. Several rounds of showers and thunderstorms prompted a widespread flash flood problems across the Ohio River Valley on April 2nd to April 3rd. The synoptic pattern across the CONUS was a slow moving and deep elongated trough over the Great Plains phasing with a ejecting trough over the Midwest that created an area of converging moisture over eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Overall, over a span of 4 days, fo…
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 Preston 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.