Baton Rouge (East Baton Rouge Parish), LA Flood Zone & Drainage Map

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Overview

Where does rainwater drain in East Baton Rouge Parish? This interactive map shows surface drainage patterns across Baton Rouge, Baker, Zachary, and surrounding areas based on terrain shape - where gravity directs rainwater based on elevation and slope. For official flood risk information, see the FEMA flood zone layer on the Hazards tab.

East Baton Rouge Parish drains primarily through the Amite River and Comite River, which converge south of the city. The catastrophic August 2016 floods exposed the vulnerability of this watershed - over 30 inches of rain in three days overwhelmed every drainage channel. Silt loam soils saturate quickly, converting rainfall directly to surface runoff. Choose a location to see surface drainage analysis and water flow direction based on terrain shape. The first three locations are free.

Interpretation

Select a location on the map or enter an address to see terrain analysis.

3D Terrain Visualization
Where does rainwater flow based on terrain shape? Blue areas show where water collects and drains downhill.
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Terrain drainage map of East Baton Rouge Parish, LA: modeled paths where rainwater runs and collects, from USGS 3DEP elevation data, with the parish boundary Click any spot on the map to analyze it
4.0× Horizontal:Vertical
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East Baton Rouge Parish flood history

FEMA records 22,575 flood insurance claims in East Baton Rouge Parish since 1978, with about $1.3 billion paid. 21% of the claims with a rated flood zone came from moderate- or low-risk zones (X, B or C), outside the high-risk areas on FEMA’s flood maps.

Bar chart of FEMA flood insurance claims per year in East Baton Rouge Parish, LA, 1978 to 2026, highest in 2016 (Mid-summer severe storms) with 11,647 claims.

Biggest flood years

  1. 2016 · Mid-summer severe storms · 11,647 claims
  2. 1983 · 1,457 claims
  3. 2021 · 2021 Mid-Spring Severe Storms · 1,434 claims
  4. 2001 · Tropical Storm Allison · 1,105 claims
  5. 1995 · 789 claims

ZIP codes with the most claims

ZIPClaimsShare
708172,78512.3%
708162,68011.9%
708152,2019.7%
708141,7737.9%
707141,6777.4%
707391,5737.0%
708181,3345.9%
708191,2855.7%

How to read this. These are National Flood Insurance Program claims, so they count only insured buildings and miss flooding where owners had no flood insurance. FEMA publishes them without names or addresses: they show which years and areas flooded, never whether a particular house did. ZIP codes are as reported on the claims, and a ZIP code can extend beyond the parish. The “rated” flood zone is the one used to price the policy and may come from an older map. Data as of 2026-09-08, from FEMA OpenFEMA.

Next: look up the flood zone for an address · how to check whether a specific house has flooded · why Zone X can still flood · how to read the drainage map

Sunlight and soil in East Baton Rouge Parish

Sunlight. Ground here gets about 4.9 kWh of sunlight per square meter per day on average, above the middle of the lower 48 (4.5). South-facing slopes get more, north-facing ones less.

Soil. The ground is mostly loamy soil over a clay-rich subsoil (Luvisols 93%). Rain soaks in, then slows at the clay layer.

The Solar and Soil tabs on the map above show both for any address. Read more: how much sun does my property get? · what soil type is my property, and how it affects drainage

Sunlight: long-term average on flat ground from the National Solar Radiation Database (National Laboratory of the Rockies, formerly NREL). Soil: most likely soil types from ISRIC SoilGrids, a 250 m model, not a survey of any lot. Both cover the map area above.

Explore more flood and drainage maps

Browse all 64 flood and drainage maps · Flood insurance claims in the 50 largest cities · How Terreflow uses terrain and FEMA data