Hurricane Zeta
NFIP flood claims
- By paid claims (1,040), Hurricane Zeta is the 7th lowest of 42 named storms covered here, and the lowest of 42 by median paid claim in 2024 dollars.
- Mississippi holds 61.3% of the storm’s paid claims and Louisiana 18.1%; 3 states are listed.
- Median paid claims of the storm run from $4,537 in Mississippi to $9,801 in Louisiana.
- In 2024 dollars (CPI-U), its median paid claim, $6,711, is 73.5% below the middle value of the storm medians ($25,316).
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 Zeta (AL282020, retrieved 2026-10-12) records 2 landfalls, 1 of them in or near a US county. It came on 2020-10-28 at 21:00 UTC, as a category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 100 kt: HURDAT2 position 29.2N 90.6W, rounded to 0.1°; county containing or nearest it: Terrebonne Parish, LA.
| Date | Time (UTC) | Position | Strength | Wind (kt) | Pressure (mb) | County containing or nearest the position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-10-27 | 03:55 | 20.4N 87.4W | category 1 hurricane | 75 | 977 | no US county |
| 2020-10-28 | 21:00 | 29.2N 90.6W | category 3 hurricane | 100 | 970 | Terrebonne Parish, LA (2 km) |
National Hurricane Center report
From the NHC Tropical Cyclone Report on Hurricane Zeta (retrieved 2026-10-12):
“Zeta was a late-season hurricane that made landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula as a category 1 (on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale) hurricane.”
“After weakening to a tropical storm, Zeta rapidly intensified into a category 3 hurricane just before landfall in southeastern Louisiana.”
NFIP paid building claims in Hurricane Zeta
NFIP claims: amounts paid, not repair cost. Window: event: Hurricane Zeta, year of loss 2020; 1,040 paid claims; median $5,537, half of them between $2,319 (Q1) and $15,787 (Q3), in nominal dollars. Median in 2024 dollars (CPI-U): $6,711, a monetary adjustment, not today’s cost of repair.
Paid claims by year of loss
| Year of loss | Paid claims |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 1,040 |
Paid claims by state
| State | Paid claims | Median paid |
|---|---|---|
| Mississippi | 638 | $4,537 |
| Louisiana | 188 | $9,801 |
| Alabama | 179 | $5,885 |
Counties with the most paid claims
The storm’s paid claims are spread over many counties: the first, Harrison County, MS, holds 29.2% of them, ahead of Jackson County, MS and Mobile County, AL.
| County | FIPS | Paid claims |
|---|---|---|
| Harrison County | 28047 | 304 |
| Jackson County | 28059 | 213 |
| Mobile County | 01097 | 150 |
| Hancock County | 28045 | 119 |
Questions about Hurricane Zeta flood claims
How many flood insurance claims were paid after Hurricane Zeta?
1,040 NFIP building claims carrying FEMA’s Hurricane Zeta event label were paid (event: Hurricane Zeta, year of loss 2020), with a median of $5,537; half of them fall between $2,319 and $15,787. These are amounts paid, not repair cost.
Which counties had the most Hurricane Zeta flood claims?
Harrison County, MS (304), Jackson County, MS (213) and Mobile County, AL (150), across 3 states listed.
What is the median Hurricane Zeta flood claim in 2024 dollars?
$6,711 once each claim is adjusted with the CPI-U, against $5,537 in nominal dollars: a monetary adjustment, not today’s cost of repair.
Related tools
Paid claims of Hurricane Zeta 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 Zeta" with yearOfLoss 2020; 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).