According to the National Weather Service, flooding is the leading storm-related cause of death in the United States, accounting for an average of over 125 fatalities year during the past few decades.
Here are a few of the deadliest floods that have occurred in the country during the last 25 years.
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July 2025, Texas
At least 79 people have been killed and numerous others are still missing after severe rains in the Texas Hill Country left a girls’ camp along the Guadalupe River. Authorities are currently evaluating the fatal impacts of the storm.
In order to find casualties and rescue individuals who were stranded in trees and in camps separated by washed-out highways, searchers deployed helicopters, boats, and drones.
In 2024, Hurricane Helene
In September 2024, strikes occurred in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Virginia. The National Weather Service estimates that the storm killed roughly 250 people.
Instead of being killed by strong winds, many of the people who perished in Helene were victims of severe inland flooding. Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Helene was the most deadly hurricane to strike the U.S. mainland.
Millions of people were left without The Department of Health and Human Services in North Carolina claims that Helene was the cause of 108 fatalities in the state alone.
2022 in Kentucky
According to senior meteorologist Tyler Roys of AccuWeather, 45 people were killed by raging floodwaters in late July 2022.
Along with severely damaging schools, highways, bridges, and water infrastructure, the floods also devastated houses and businesses. Thousands of families lost everything they owned as a result of the catastrophe.
Tennessee in 2021
were murdered when, in August 2021, more than 17 inches (43 cm) of rain fell in less than 24 hours, causing creeks close to the little hamlet of Waverly in Middle Tennessee to flood.
Automobiles were destroyed, businesses were destroyed, and homes were washed off their foundations. Twin babies who were snatched from their father’s arms were among the deceased.
Harvey, Hurricane 2017
In August 2017, a strong Category 4 storm slammed across Texas. As Harvey plodded inland for days, it dumped several feet of rain on the Houston region and numerous Gulf Coast areas.
According to a report, Harvey killed at least 68 people. Freshwater flooding, which destroyed over 300,000 buildings and cost an estimated $125 billion in damage, was directly responsible for all but three of the Harvey fatalities.
June 2016, West Virginia
In West Virginia, a seemingly insignificant downpour grew into a disaster that trapped dozens of people overnight and eventually spread throughout the entire state.
Sandy, the 2012 Superstorm
was a hurricane that hit New York and the nearby areas in October 2012, followed by subsequent storms.
The National Hurricane Center reports that Sandy was 72 in the eastern United States. Drowning was the cause of over 110 deaths, according to Roys.
2011’s Mississippi River
Rivers in the Mississippi River Basin swelled and flooded in 2011 as a result of heavy rainfall in numerous states and a slower-than-normal melt.
In April and May, flash floods linked to these storms killed 24 people in Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee.
Hurricane Ike in 2008
slammed into the southeast Texas Gulf Coast in September 2008, causing the island metropolis of Galveston to see a storm surge as high as 20 feet (6 meters).
Over 100 people died as a result of the storm, many of them from floods, and it ultimately caused more than $29 billion in damage.
2005’s Hurricane Katrina
is the most deadly flood to hit the United States in the last 25 years.
When levees broke in New Orleans, the storm slammed into the Gulf Coast, causing catastrophic flooding that forced people to be rescued from rooftops by boat and helicopter.
Katrina was the most expensive storm in American history, with an estimated $200 billion in damages and approximately 1,400 fatalities.
Allison’s Tropical Storm, 2001
According to Roys, 41 people were killed by Tropical Storm Allison, primarily as a result of flooding in Texas and Louisiana brought on by the 40 inches (101 centimeters) of rain that poured during the storm.
After Allison made landfall in June 2001 and caused significant flooding in Houston, its remnants lingered for days, posing a hazard.
