Baton Rouge, LA

The August 2016 Louisiana flood produced more than 30 inches of rain in parts of the Baton Rouge metro—flooding approximately 150,000 homes and affecting areas well outside coastal flood zones. This was not a hurricane event. It was a rainfall event, and that distinction is precisely the point: Baton Rouge's flood score of 88 at the 95th national percentile reflects an inland vulnerability that coastal-focused risk language consistently undersells. Heat at the 86th national percentile adds a second primary hazard: the 2023 Gulf heat season extended extreme humidity and temperature conditions through months that amplified both energy bills and heat-health concerns across the metro. Our read: inland Baton Rouge buyers who dismiss flood diligence because they are not in a coastal parish are using the wrong framework. The 2016 event occurred primarily outside FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas—meaning mandatory flood insurance zones did not capture the properties that actually flooded. Mid City's older homes and drainage patterns drive diligence requirements that broad zone labels miss. South Baton Rouge's suburban growth has changed runoff behavior in ways that older maps do not fully reflect. Annual premiums range from $2,300 to $5,900. Flood history matters more than broad zone labels in this market—properties with prior claims underwrite differently regardless of their official FEMA designation. The hurricane score at the 68th national percentile is moderate; Baton Rouge's distance from the coast reduces direct surge risk, but rainfall flooding from Gulf systems is a real recurring threat. Inland buyers in Louisiana need a flood-first analysis. The 2016 flood made that argument definitively and at scale.

— Open Data Collective