Texas has the highest number of flood-related deaths in the U.S., driven by its geography, large size, and population.

Long before the Central Texas floods that claimed over 100 lives, the state already topped the nation in flood-related deaths — a trend driven in part by its terrain, which can channel rainfall into deadly flash floods, according to decades of research.

Between 1959 and 2019, Texas recorded 1,069 flood fatalities — nearly 20% of the 5,724 flood-related deaths across the contiguous United States during that period, according to a 2021 study published in the journal Water. That figure puts Texas far ahead of the next closest state, Louisiana, by about 370 deaths.

Nationwide, flooding ranks as the second-deadliest weather hazard after heat — both in 2024 and over the past 30 years — with an average of 145 flood-related deaths per year over the past decade, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

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