ZIP 23138
Mathews County, VA

The heaviest year

2003 is the heaviest year on file: 133 paid claims, 66.2% of the ZIP's total. More than half of everything ever paid here traces to that single year. The largest named event in the record is Hurricane Isabel, with 131 claims.

8 of those claims — 4.0% — were filed since 2017. The bulk of this ZIP's record is older than that.

Named event	Paid claims	Share of record
Hurricane Isabel	131	65.2%
Tropical Storm Ernesto	15	7.5%
November 2009 Nor'easter	12	6.0%

Where the claims sat on the map

Of the 200 claims here that record a rated flood zone, 1 — 0.5% — were on properties rated outside the mapped high-risk area, in a B, C or X zone. Claims here concentrate inside the mapped high-risk area, which is what the maps intend. Flood insurance is not required outside the high-risk zone, and most properties there do not carry it — so these counts come from the minority who did.

The water near this ZIP

The closest gauges publishing official flood thresholds are Ware River near Schley (IN MLLW) (7.1 mi), Piankatank River above Wharf Creek near Hudgins VA (IN MLLW) (10.1 mi) and Chesapeake Bay near Yorktown (IN MLLW) (12.5 mi). A gauge describes one point on one river — it will not see street drainage, sewer backup, storm surge or flash flooding.

Read current gauge conditions for 23138 →

What this does not say

These are paid National Flood Insurance Program claims, nothing more. They count insured properties whose owners filed and were paid, so they are a floor on how often this ZIP has flooded — never a measure of how likely it is to flood next. Uninsured flooding leaves no trace here at all.

The figures are aggregates published by FEMA. No individual claim, address or policyholder appears on this page or in the data behind it. Nothing here is a forecast, a warning, or advice about insurance.