klepZ HighWater

Flood history / South Carolina / ZIP 29438

ZIP 29438
Colleton County, SC

Paid claims6471979–2025
Total paid$4.4M$7K average
Heaviest year2016308 claims
Outside high-risk zone1%of claims with a rated zone

Property owners in ZIP 29438 have been paid $4.4M on 647 National Flood Insurance Program claims between 1979 and 2025 — an average of $7K a claim, across 35 separate years in which someone here filed and was paid.

The heaviest year

2016 is the heaviest year on file: 308 paid claims, 47.6% of the ZIP's total. That one year accounts for more than a quarter of the ZIP's entire record. The largest named event in the record is Hurricane Matthew, with 303 claims.

97 of those claims — 15.0% — were filed since 2017. The bulk of this ZIP's record is older than that.

Named eventPaid claimsShare of record
Hurricane Matthew30346.8%
Hurricane Irma7010.8%
Hurricane Hugo497.6%

Where the claims sat on the map

Of the 647 claims here that record a rated flood zone, 8 — 1.2% — 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 Church Creek near West Ashley (23.2 mi), Cooper River at Charleston Harbor (IN MLLW) (27.3 mi) and Ireland Creek at Walterboro (31.0 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 29438 →

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.

Other South Carolina ZIP codes on file

  • 29582 Horry County · 4,310 claims
  • 29401 Charleston County · 3,218 claims
  • 29576 Horry County · 3,064 claims
  • 29451 Charleston County · 2,691 claims
  • 29412 Charleston County · 2,459 claims
  • 29585 Georgetown County · 2,374 claims
  • 29407 Charleston County · 2,265 claims
  • 29464 Charleston County · 1,784 claims

All South Carolina ZIP codes →