Hurricane Matthew
NFIP flood claims
- By paid claims (16,337), Hurricane Matthew is the 10th highest of 42 named storms covered here, and the 15th lowest of 42 by median paid claim in 2024 dollars.
- Median paid claims of the storm run from $13,570 in Georgia to $23,652 in Virginia.
- South Carolina holds 30.4% of the storm’s paid claims and North Carolina 29.6%; 5 states are listed.
- The storm’s paid claims are spread over many counties: the first, St. Johns County, FL, holds 17.1% of them, ahead of Beaufort County, SC and Virginia Beach city, VA.
Source: FEMA, OpenFEMA NfipClaims (v3, data as of 2026-09-09, retrieved 2026-10-12); CPI-U, U.S. city average, all items (CUUR0000SA0), annual average (BLS Public Data API v1, annual averages 2005-2025, retrieved 2026-10-12). Not an official federal report.
Landfall and storm report
The National Hurricane Center’s HURDAT2 best track of Hurricane Matthew (AL142016, retrieved 2026-10-12) records 4 landfalls, 1 of them in or near a US county. It came on 2016-10-08 at 15:00 UTC, as a category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 kt: HURDAT2 position 33.0N 79.5W, rounded to 0.1°; county containing or nearest it: Charleston County, SC.
| Date | Time (UTC) | Position | Strength | Wind (kt) | Pressure (mb) | County containing or nearest the position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-10-04 | 11:00 | 18.3N 74.3W | category 4 hurricane | 130 | 935 | no US county |
| 2016-10-05 | 00:00 | 20.1N 74.3W | category 4 hurricane | 115 | 949 | no US county |
| 2016-10-07 | 00:00 | 26.7N 79.0W | category 4 hurricane | 115 | 937 | no US county |
| 2016-10-08 | 15:00 | 33.0N 79.5W | category 1 hurricane | 75 | 967 | Charleston County, SC (1.5 km) |
National Hurricane Center report
From the NHC Tropical Cyclone Report on Hurricane Matthew (retrieved 2026-10-12):
“Matthew was a category 5 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale) that later made landfalls as a major hurricane along the coasts of southwestern Haiti, extreme eastern Cuba, and western Grand Bahama Island, and as a category 1 hurricane along the central coast of South Carolina.”
“Matthew was responsible for 585 direct deaths, with more than 500 deaths occurring in Haiti, making it the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Stan in 2005.”
NFIP paid building claims in Hurricane Matthew
NFIP claims: amounts paid, not repair cost. Window: event: Hurricane Matthew, year of loss 2016; 16,337 paid claims; median $16,862, half of them between $6,067 (Q1) and $43,959 (Q3), in nominal dollars. Median in 2024 dollars (CPI-U): $22,038, a monetary adjustment, not today’s cost of repair.
Paid claims by year of loss
| Year of loss | Paid claims |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 16,337 |
Paid claims by state
| State | Paid claims | Median paid |
|---|---|---|
| South Carolina | 4,970 | $13,839 |
| North Carolina | 4,837 | $15,094 |
| Florida | 3,940 | $23,108 |
| Virginia | 1,952 | $23,652 |
| Georgia | 638 | $13,570 |
Counties with the most paid claims
| County | FIPS | Paid claims |
|---|---|---|
| St. Johns County | 12109 | 2,795 |
| Beaufort County | 45013 | 1,648 |
| Virginia Beach city | 51810 | 1,251 |
| Charleston County | 45019 | 1,084 |
| Horry County | 45051 | 1,014 |
| Dare County | 37055 | 967 |
| Georgetown County | 45043 | 490 |
| Chatham County | 13051 | 441 |
| Wayne County | 37191 | 407 |
| Robeson County | 37155 | 379 |
Questions about Hurricane Matthew flood claims
How many flood insurance claims were paid after Hurricane Matthew?
16,337 NFIP building claims carrying FEMA’s Hurricane Matthew event label were paid (event: Hurricane Matthew, year of loss 2016), with a median of $16,862; half of them fall between $6,067 and $43,959. These are amounts paid, not repair cost.
Which counties had the most Hurricane Matthew flood claims?
St. Johns County, FL (2,795), Beaufort County, SC (1,648) and Virginia Beach city, VA (1,251), across 5 states listed.
What is the median Hurricane Matthew flood claim in 2024 dollars?
$22,038 once each claim is adjusted with the CPI-U, against $16,862 in nominal dollars: a monetary adjustment, not today’s cost of repair.
Related tools
Paid claims of Hurricane Matthew 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 storm total counts NFIP-insured buildings with a paid claim, not all the damage of the storm. Method and limits.
Source and notice
- Storm = floodEvent "Hurricane Matthew" with yearOfLoss 2016; window of the extraction: yearOfLoss 2005-2025.
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).