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Flood Insurance in Bay County, Florida

Your lender set the requirement. Nobody set the price.

Hurricane Michael paid $125.7 million in flood insurance claims in Bay County, across 2,129 claims. That one event was 87% of everything flood insurance paid there in the past decade.[1]

Bay County at a glance

Flood policies in force in Bay County
30,262[2]
Flood claims paid in 10 years
$144.4[1]million
CRS discount, unincorporated Bay County
25%[3]
First FEMA flood map
1981[4]

What floods have cost Bay County

2,822[1]

Flood claims filed in Bay County in the last 10 years.

Flood claims paid in Bay County, by storm[1]

  1. Hurricane Michael 2018, 2,129 claims $125.7M
  2. Hurricane Sally 2020, 296 claims $9.2M
  3. Tropical Storm Fred 2021, 72 claims $3.4M
  4. Hurricane Helene 2024, 13 claims $32,797
  5. Hurricane Eta 2020, 1 claims $29,280
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Flood zones in Bay County

Same flood zone, very different prices. Your zone decides if a lender requires flood insurance. The price depends on the home itself.

Map of Florida with Bay County shaded
Bay County, Florida[5]

What sets the price in Bay County

Same flood zone, very different prices in Bay County. Here is why.

Your zone decides whether the lender requires flood insurance. It does not set your NFIP price. Since 2021, FEMA prices each policy from the building and its spot.[6]

  1. How often the spot floods. FEMA looks at how often flooding reaches the building's location.
  2. How close it sits to water. The distance from the building to a flooding source.
  3. The building itself. How high the first floor sits and what it would cost to rebuild.
Unincorporated Bay County: Community Rating System Class 5, 25% discount, on a scale that tops out at 45%. 0% 45%
Unincorporated Bay County earns 25% off NFIP flood premiums in the high-risk zone.[3]

Find out what your Bay County address needs

Your flood zone and your community's discount, in one check.

Questions about flood insurance in Bay County

Is flood insurance required in Bay County?

If your home is in a Special Flood Hazard Area and you have a federally backed mortgage, yes. Homeowners insurance does not cover flood. [7]

Is there a waiting period for flood insurance in Bay County?

NFIP rules apply the same in Bay County: 30 days for a standard NFIP purchase. No wait when the policy is bought as part of getting, refinancing, increasing, extending or renewing a loan on the home. One day when a new flood map just placed the home in a high-risk zone (within 13 months of the map date). [8]

What does flood insurance cost in Bay County?

The county average is $476 per year across 30,262 active NFIP policies (FEMA, July 2026). [2]

How much did Hurricane Michael cost Bay County?

2,129 NFIP claims and $125.7 million paid in Bay County, per federal claim records. [1]

Your flood toolkit for Bay County

  • Emergency management

    Bay County Emergency Management[9]

    Call (850) 248-6040

  • Flood zone help

    Bay County floodplain management[10]

    Call (850) 248-8250

  • Your evacuation zone

    Look up your Bay County evacuation zone[11]

    Open the county's page

Keep reading about flood insurance in Bay County

Sources and dates

  1. FEMA OpenFEMA, FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims v2. Bay County NFIP claims, last 10 years. Read November 5, 2026.
  2. FEMA OpenFEMA, FIMA NFIP Redacted Policies v2. Bay County NFIP policies in force. Read July 4, 2026.
  3. FEMA CRS Eligible Communities, October 1, 2026 effective date (PDF). Bay County Community Rating System class. Read November 4, 2026.
  4. FEMA NFIP Community Status Book, Florida. Bay County first flood map. Read November 5, 2026.
  5. U.S. Census Bureau, cartographic boundary files, 2017 edition, 1:10,000,000 (as redistributed in us-atlas 3.0.1). County and state outlines on the map. Read October 27, 2026.
  6. FEMA, Understanding Risk Rating 2.0 fact sheet, July 2025. The rating variables: frequency of flooding, proximity to flood sources, first floor height and the cost to rebuild; Risk Rating 2.0 since October 1, 2021. Read October 26, 2026.
  7. 42 U.S.C. 4012a, Flood insurance purchase requirements. A federally regulated lender requires flood insurance on a building in a Special Flood Hazard Area. Read October 26, 2026.
  8. 44 CFR 61.11, Effective date and time of coverage. The 30-day wait, the loan exception and the map revision exception. Read October 29, 2026.
  9. baycountyfl.gov. Bay County Emergency Management. Read November 5, 2026.
  10. baycountyfl.gov. Bay County floodplain management. Read November 5, 2026.
  11. baycountyfl.gov. Bay County evacuation zone lookup. Read November 1, 2026.
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