Flood history / Minnesota / ZIP 56546
ZIP 56546
Clay County, MN
Property owners in ZIP 56546 have been paid $696K on 105 National Flood Insurance Program claims between 1978 and 2019 — an average of $7K a claim, across 13 separate years in which someone here filed and was paid.
The heaviest year
1997 is the heaviest year on file: 30 paid claims, 28.6% 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 Not a named storm, with 18 claims.
1 of those claims — 1.0% — were filed since 2017. The bulk of this ZIP's record is older than that.
Where the claims sat on the map
Of the 88 claims here that record a rated flood zone, 10 — 11.4% — 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 Buffalo River (MN) near Dilworth (10.2 mi), Wild Rice River (MN) at Hendrum (11.8 mi) and Sheyenne River at Harwood (11.9 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 56546 →
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.