Tropical Storm Ernesto
NFIP flood claims
- By paid claims (1,705), Tropical Storm Ernesto is the 12th lowest of 42 named storms covered here, and the 8th lowest of 42 by median paid claim in 2024 dollars.
- Virginia holds 65.4% of the storm’s paid claims and North Carolina 34.6%; 2 states are listed.
- In 2024 dollars (CPI-U), its median paid claim, $15,517, is 38.7% below the middle value of the storm medians ($25,316).
- The storm’s paid claims are spread over many counties: the first, Currituck County, NC, holds 19.6% of them, ahead of Mathews County, VA 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 Tropical Storm Ernesto (AL062006, retrieved 2026-10-12) records 4 landfalls, 3 of them in or near a US county. The strongest of those came on 2006-09-01 at 03:40 UTC, as a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 60 kt: HURDAT2 position 33.9N 78.1W, rounded to 0.1°; county containing or nearest it: Brunswick County, NC.
| Date | Time (UTC) | Position | Strength | Wind (kt) | Pressure (mb) | County containing or nearest the position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006-08-28 | 11:15 | 19.9N 75.5W | tropical storm | 35 | 1,005 | no US county |
| 2006-08-30 | 03:00 | 24.9N 80.6W | tropical storm | 40 | 1,003 | Monroe County, FL (3.2 km) |
| 2006-08-30 | 05:00 | 25.2N 80.7W | tropical storm | 40 | 1,003 | Miami-Dade County, FL |
| 2006-09-01 | 03:40 | 33.9N 78.1W | tropical storm | 60 | 985 | Brunswick County, NC (0.7 km) |
National Hurricane Center report
From the NHC Tropical Cyclone Report on Tropical Storm Ernesto (retrieved 2026-10-12):
“Ernesto was briefly a marginal category 1 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale) over the central Caribbean Sea, and it was a strong tropical storm over the extreme western Atlantic Ocean, including at its final landfall in North Carolina.”
“While impacts from landfalls in Florida and Cuba were limited, the storm produced torrential rainfall and floods in portions of Hispaniola and eastern North Carolina.”
NFIP paid building claims in Tropical Storm Ernesto
NFIP claims: amounts paid, not repair cost. Window: event: Tropical Storm Ernesto, year of loss 2006; 1,705 paid claims; median $9,973, half of them between $4,209 (Q1) and $20,249 (Q3), in nominal dollars. Median in 2024 dollars (CPI-U): $15,517, a monetary adjustment, not today’s cost of repair.
Paid claims by year of loss
| Year of loss | Paid claims |
|---|---|
| 2006 | 1,705 |
Paid claims by state
| State | Paid claims | Median paid |
|---|---|---|
| Virginia | 1,115 | $10,037 |
| North Carolina | 590 | $9,939 |
Counties with the most paid claims
| County | FIPS | Paid claims |
|---|---|---|
| Currituck County | 37053 | 335 |
| Mathews County | 51115 | 136 |
| Virginia Beach city | 51810 | 128 |
| Hampton city | 51650 | 119 |
| Lancaster County | 51103 | 118 |
| Northumberland County | 51133 | 109 |
Questions about Tropical Storm Ernesto flood claims
How many flood insurance claims were paid after Tropical Storm Ernesto?
1,705 NFIP building claims carrying FEMA’s Tropical Storm Ernesto event label were paid (event: Tropical Storm Ernesto, year of loss 2006), with a median of $9,973; half of them fall between $4,209 and $20,249. These are amounts paid, not repair cost.
Which counties had the most Tropical Storm Ernesto flood claims?
Currituck County, NC (335), Mathews County, VA (136) and Virginia Beach city, VA (128), across 2 states listed.
What is the median Tropical Storm Ernesto flood claim in 2024 dollars?
$15,517 once each claim is adjusted with the CPI-U, against $9,973 in nominal dollars: a monetary adjustment, not today’s cost of repair.
Related tools
Paid claims of Tropical Storm Ernesto 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 "Tropical Storm Ernesto" with yearOfLoss 2006; 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).