The Texas Water Damage Ledger

Q3 2026 edition · version 2026-Q3.1 · flood-claim record through 2026

Every flood-insurance claim the National Flood Insurance Program has paid on a Texas building, from 1978 to 2026, compiled by county. Countyguard publishes this because the federal government releases the record but nobody assembles it into a form a Texan can read.

What the record shows

Texas flood loss is episodic, not annual. Of the 22 counties with at least 1,000 paid claims on record, 11 have a single loss year holding 30% or more of everything ever paid there — and for 8 of those 11, that year is 2017. A county can go a decade with almost no claims and still hold most of its flood history in one twelve-month period, which is why a quiet recent record is weak evidence about the next year.

Counties by total flood-claim payments

The 15 counties with the largest recorded building payments on the whole NFIP record. Nominal dollars — not adjusted for inflation.

Counties by claims per 1,000 homes

The same record measured against how many homes each county has, which is the comparison a total cannot make. Housing units are from the US Census American Community Survey.

How this was built, and what it does not say

Figures are compiled from FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program redacted claims file: claims with a recorded building payment greater than zero, counted by year of loss, with no date window. Statewide totals cover all 254 Texas counties. The rankings cover the 107 counties with at least 50 paid claims on record, which together hold 300,411 of the 301,687 claims statewide. Dollar figures are nominal dollars — not adjusted for inflation, so a 1979 payment and a 2024 payment are added together as printed. This is a record of what the NFIP PAID, not a measure of flood risk, of damage that went unclaimed, or of losses covered by other policies — most water damage inside a home is not a flood-insurance matter at all.

Published by Neha Malik, Publisher — Eldhurst LLC, who is accountable for what this site publishes. Countyguard is not a licensed adjuster, contractor, engineer, or attorney. Corrections and questions: support@countyguard.com.