Chatham County, Georgia
flood insurance data

NFIP premiums in Chatham County

NFIP premiums: what NFIP policyholders paid, not a quote. Across 20,032 policies (policies effective 2025; occupancy: residential (occupancyType 1,2,3,11,12,13,14); amount: FEMA field policyCost), the median is $984, and half of them fall between $765 (Q1) and $1,158 (Q3).

Residential NFIP policies counted by FEMA fell 21.5% between 2019 (25,520) and 2025 (20,032); the first year, 2019, has the highest count of the 7. Of the 3 zones listed (AE, X, A), zone AE has the highest median premium ($1,042) and zone A the lowest ($720). No coastal V or VE zone is listed. Inside the Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA), the median premium in Chatham County is $1,039, 14.8% higher than outside it ($905); most of its zoned policies sit inside the SFHA (52.5%). The median NFIP premium in Chatham County, $984, is in line with the Georgia median ($977) and 6.7% below the national median ($1,055); it is the 125th lowest of 339 counties with all four FEMA sources.

By flood zone

Policies in force by year

Base of each count: the yearly figures are FEMA API counts of residential policy terms, every premium included; the median and quartiles rest on the policies effective 2025 with a positive policyCost. For 2025 both bases count 20,032 policies.

NFIP paid building claims in Chatham County

NFIP claims: amounts paid, not repair cost. Window: year of loss 2015-2024; 1,411 paid claims; median $13,444, half of them between $4,169 (Q1) and $35,530 (Q3), in nominal dollars. Median in 2024 dollars (CPI-U): $16,859, a monetary adjustment, not today’s cost of repair.

One event weighs on these figures: Hurricane Irma accounts for 54.5% of the paid claims in Chatham County, the next event (Hurricane Matthew) for 31.3%. These figures largely reflect that one disaster. 2017 alone holds 56.6% of the paid claims (year of loss 2015-2024).

Paid claims by year of loss

FEMA disaster declarations

Since 2000: 8 flood, hurricane and severe-storm declarations (DR and EM) covering Chatham County, 3 of them major disaster declarations.

Latest declarations

• DR-4830: HURRICANE HELENE (Hurricane, 2024-09-30)
• EM-3422: HURRICANE DORIAN (Hurricane, 2019-09-01)
• EM-3406: HURRICANE MICHAEL (Hurricane, 2018-10-10)
• DR-4338: HURRICANE IRMA (Hurricane, 2017-09-15)
• EM-3387: HURRICANE IRMA (Hurricane, 2017-09-08)

FEMA assistance to homeowners

Since 2002: 7,323 owner registrations inspected by FEMA in Chatham County after disasters of every declared type; inspected damage is FEMA’s assessment for its assistance program, not repair cost.

Disasters with the most inspections

• DR-4284, HURRICANE MATTHEW (declared 2016-10-08): 2,675 inspections
• DR-4830, HURRICANE HELENE (declared 2024-09-30): 2,154 inspections
• DR-4338, HURRICANE IRMA (declared 2017-09-15): 1,834 inspections
• DR-4821, TROPICAL STORM DEBBY (declared 2024-09-24): 659 inspections
• DR-9802: 1 inspections

NFIP communities and flood maps

FEMA’s Community Status Book places 9 NFIP communities in Chatham County alone; 7 of them (77.8%) are classed in the Community Rating System (CRS). The best class among the communities counted here is 5 (Chatham County*, Pooler, City of, Savannah, City of and 1 more): FEMA applies that 25% discount to the full-risk premium of Regular Program NFIP policies in those communities, inside or outside the SFHA, not to the whole county; a policy can be excluded if its building does not comply with local floodplain rules. The oldest flood map still in effect in Chatham County dates from 2018-08-16 (Tybee Island, City of).

In Georgia, 5.3% of the Status Book’s communities span several counties or match no county by name, so community counts by county are partial there.

Questions about flood insurance in Chatham County

How much is flood insurance in Chatham County?

NFIP policyholders in Chatham County paid a median of $984 for residential policies effective 2025 (20,032 policies; FEMA field policyCost: premium, reserve fund assessment, federal policy fee and HFIAA surcharge); half paid between $765 and $1,158; $1,039 inside the Special Flood Hazard Area against $905 outside it: what NFIP policyholders paid, not a quote.

How many flood insurance claims has Chatham County had?

1,411 NFIP building claims were paid (year of loss 2015-2024), with a median of $13,444; the year with the most was 2017 (799), and the named event with the most was Hurricane Irma (769). These are amounts paid, not repair cost.

Is Chatham County in a flood zone?

Of the residential NFIP policies of Chatham County (policies effective 2025), 10,525 are rated inside the Special Flood Hazard Area and 9,507 outside it (zones listed: AE, X, A), but these aggregates cannot tell the flood zone of an address: FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center shows it for a given property.

Statewide figures: Georgia flood insurance data.

Named storms with paid claims in Chatham County

• Hurricane Helene
• Hurricane Irma
• Hurricane Matthew
• Hurricane Debby

Related tools

NFIP paid claims and premiums are not repair estimates: to estimate the cleanup of a flooded basement from published cost-guide rates, use the basement water damage repair cost calculator; for water removal and drying after any water loss, the water damage and mitigation calculator.

To set these figures against every State on one claims window, amounts paid, not repair cost: NFIP paid building claims by state.

Before using these figures

A county figure can rest on one disaster, and FEMA’s county code may not be the county where every property stands. Method and limits.

Source and notice

• Dominant event: Hurricane Irma = 0.545 of paid claims 2015-2024.

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).