Flood Zones in Cabell County, West Virginia: The Floodwall and What It Doesn't Cover

The 1937 flood and the floodwall it produced

On January 27, 1937, the Ohio River crested at 69.45 feet in Huntington -- more than 19 feet above flood stage -- in the worst flood in the Tri-State area's recorded history, part of a regional disaster that drove hundreds of thousands from their homes along the Ohio Valley and claimed close to 400 lives. In response, the US Army Corps of Engineers built a floodwall around Huntington in three separate sections. Huntington City Council financed the land acquisition with bonds, repaid through a dedicated "floodwall tax" on the property the wall would protect -- a funding mechanism whose legality the Cabell County Circuit Court upheld and the West Virginia Supreme Court affirmed unanimously on April 9, 1938. A gauge at the floodwall's 10th Street gate indicates the wall is designed to protect the city against an Ohio River flood up to 72 feet -- several feet beyond the record-setting 1937 crest.

What the floodwall protects -- and what it doesn't

The floodwall works: flood-risk data cited by First Street indicates two flood-risk-reduction projects protect roughly 12,732 properties in the Huntington area from Ohio River flooding, and the wall has done exactly what it was built to do in the decades since 1937. But that protection is specific to the Ohio River itself. Huntington's floodplain today primarily consists of the areas surrounding Four-Pole Creek and Krouts Creek -- inland tributaries that flow through the city and eventually reach the Ohio River -- with an estimated 400 properties located within a designated floodplain along these waterways. The floodwall does nothing to prevent flooding on these creeks, which can rise from ordinary heavy local rainfall independent of Ohio River water levels. The Guyandotte River and Big Sandy River also empty into the Ohio River near Cabell County, and land along either of those rivers, particularly in the unincorporated county outside Huntington's protected zone, sits outside the floodwall's coverage entirely.

For a land buyer, this means "Cabell County is protected from flooding" is not a safe generalization -- it depends entirely on which water body a specific parcel sits near. A property inside Huntington's floodwall-protected zone has a genuinely strong, nearly 90-year track record against Ohio River flooding. A property near Four-Pole Creek, Krouts Creek, the Guyandotte River, or the Big Sandy River -- inside or outside city limits -- needs its own, separate flood-zone check, since none of those waterways benefit from the floodwall at all.

What to check on a specific Cabell County parcel

Before buying, identify which water body is actually closest to your target parcel and ask accordingly. For land inside Huntington, the City of Huntington's Planning & Zoning Department maintains floodplain-management records and can confirm whether a specific address sits inside the floodwall-protected zone or within the Four-Pole Creek/Krouts Creek floodplain. For land elsewhere in the county, particularly along the Guyandotte or Big Sandy rivers, a FEMA Flood Map Service Center search by address is the right starting point, since neither the city's floodwall nor its creek-focused floodplain data will necessarily apply. In every case, confirming current flood-insurance requirements (a lender will generally require it for a mapped high-risk zone) is worth doing before you're under contract, not after.