Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0Storms, floods and disasters in Essex
Essex isn’t graded for hazard risk: Essex has 413 residents; we grade towns of 1,000 or more.
What Essex faces
Each hazard’s share of the building damage FEMA expects here, and how its rate compares with the rest of the country.
Earthquakes
River and rain flooding
Tornadoes
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 Essex flood? No paid flood claims on record
FEMA’s records show no paid flood insurance claims in Essex. That’s not a promise: most homes don’t carry flood insurance, so small floods go unrecorded.
Essex isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.
Insurance rates: Stoddard County.5 federal disasters brought FEMA money to Essex
Disasters that paid out in Essex itself (aid to households or repair grants to the City of Essex), newest first, with that year’s flood claims.
- 2025Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, and Flooding1 households applied for aid$14K aid approved
- 2024Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, and Flooding10 households applied for aid$37K aid approved
- 2011Severe Storms, Tornadoes, and Flooding6 households applied for aid$3K aid approved
- 2009Severe Winter Storm$23K to the City of Essex for repairs
- 2008Severe Storms and Flooding3 households applied for aid$423 aid approved
Stoddard County has had 20 natural disasters declared by the President since 1953, most often severe storms, then floods. Not counted: the 2005 Hurricane Katrina evacuee emergency, which covered counties that took in evacuees.
Old photos of Essex after a storm or flood belong in the town’s history. Add one, or share what you remember below.
Add to the Essex archive →Get ready for what Essex faces
A short kit for the hazards that drive the building damage here, what to check before you buy, and where neighbors get alerts.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap tall furniture and the water heater to the wall.
- Know how to shut off the gas.
- 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.
- Pick your spot now: the lowest floor, an inside room, no windows.
- A watch means be ready; a warning means take cover now.
- Keep shoes and a flashlight by the bed.
- 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 Essex
Is Essex 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 Stoddard County, 1.0% of all homes carry federal flood insurance.
How much is flood insurance in Essex?
FEMA’s Community Rating System list shows no discount for Essex’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 Essex?
By FEMA money that reached Essex, Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, and Flooding (2024): 10 households applied for aid, $37K approved.
Storm stories
Memories, warnings and help from neighbors in Essex.
Sources: FEMA National Risk Index v1.20 (December 2025), census-tract table, combined by where Essex’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.