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).