Photo: LittleT889 · CC BY-SA 4.0Storms, floods and disasters in Otter Creek
Otter Creek isn’t graded for hazard risk: Otter Creek has 142 residents; we grade towns of 1,000 or more.
What Otter Creek faces
Each hazard’s share of the building damage FEMA expects here, and how its rate compares with the rest of the country.
Coastal flooding
Hurricanes
River and rain flooding
Shares are of FEMA’s expected building damage, the measure the grade uses; ranks compare each hazard’s building-damage rate with all 85,154 U.S. census tracts. In FEMA’s terms, river and rain flooding is FEMA’s “Inland Flooding” (rivers and streams overflowing their banks, or rain overwhelming drainage). FEMA defines coastal flooding as high or rising tides and storm surge, so surge damage is counted there. Drought isn’t listed: FEMA counts its losses in crops only.
Does Otter Creek flood? No paid flood claims on record
FEMA’s records show no paid flood insurance claims in Otter Creek. That’s not a promise: most homes don’t carry flood insurance, so small floods go unrecorded.
Otter Creek isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.
Insurance rates: Levy County.7 federal disasters brought FEMA money to Otter Creek
Disasters that paid out in Otter Creek itself (aid to households or repair grants to the Town of Otter Creek), newest first, with that year’s flood claims.
- 2024Hurricane Helene7 households applied for aid$38K aid approved
- 2024Hurricane Debby2 households applied for aid$750 aid approved
- 2023Hurricane Idalia7 households applied for aid$16K aid approved
- 2017Hurricane Irma10 households applied for aid$652 aid approved
- 2004Hurricane Jeanne5 households applied for aid$9K aid approved
- 2004Hurricane Frances16 households applied for aid$39K aid approved
Show all 7
- 2004Tropical Storm Bonnie and Hurricane Charley4 households applied for aid$7K aid approved
Levy County has had 31 natural disasters declared by the President since 1953, most often hurricanes and tropical storms, then severe storms. Not counted: the 2005 Hurricane Katrina evacuee emergency, which covered counties that took in evacuees.
Also 3 FEMA wildfire suppression grants (Fire Management Assistance, not a disaster declaration) for fires in Levy County, 1999–2026.
Old photos of Otter Creek after a storm or flood belong in the town’s history. Add one, or share what you remember below.
Add to the Otter Creek archive →Get ready for what Otter Creek faces
A short kit for the hazards that drive the building damage here, what to check before you buy, and where neighbors get alerts.
- Know your evacuation zone and the way off the coast.
- Storm surge comes fast: leave when you’re told, not when the water arrives.
- Move cars to high ground before king tides and nor’easters.
- The season runs June through November and peaks from mid-August to mid-October.
- Bring in porch furniture and anything the wind can throw.
- Fill the gas tank and charge phones before the storm arrives.
- Turn around at flooded roads: a foot of moving water can carry off a car.
- Flood insurance usually takes 30 days to start, so buy it before the forecast.
- Keep papers and medicines up high, in a grab-and-go bag.
- Look up the address on FEMA’s flood map.
- Ask the seller or landlord whether it has ever flooded, and what flood insurance costs there.
- Get a flood insurance quote early: policies usually start 30 days after you buy.
Know where neighbors sign up for alerts? Add it to the Handbook so everyone has it.
Questions about natural hazards in Otter Creek
Is Otter Creek in a flood zone?
Flood zones are drawn street by street, so the answer depends on the address: look it up on FEMA’s flood map. In Levy County, 29% of homes in mapped flood zones carry federal flood insurance, and 4.3% of all homes do.
How much is flood insurance in Otter Creek?
FEMA’s Community Rating System list shows no discount for Otter Creek’s flood program. Premiums depend on the building; policies usually start 30 days after you buy, so get a quote early.
What was the biggest storm in Otter Creek?
By FEMA money that reached Otter Creek, Hurricane Frances (2004): 16 households applied for aid, $39K approved.
Storm stories
Memories, warnings and help from neighbors in Otter Creek.
Sources: FEMA National Risk Index v1.20 (December 2025), census-tract table, combined by where Otter Creek’s residents lived in the 2020 census; OpenFEMA: NFIP redacted claims, multiple-loss properties, community status book and residential penetration rates, housing assistance (owners and renters), public assistance funded projects, hazard mitigation properties and disaster declarations. Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. Preparedness tips: Ready.gov. FEMA’s model is an average of expected damage, not a forecast. How hazard risk is graded.