Dearborn County, Indiana · Lawrenceburg
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Hidden Valley, Bright and Lawrenceburg. Start the steps below while you wait.
Answered 24/7 by a participating local provider. We're a referral service and don't do the work ourselves. How it works
Start here
Pick the closest match. These steps limit the damage and protect your insurance claim. Skip anything that isn't safe.
Dearborn County averages 25 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly December to March, and 25% of its homes predate 1960.
Basements flood here mostly in February. Dearborn County averages 8.3 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Dearborn County gets about 8.3 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
Roof leaks here come from summer downpours and, with about 76 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
13% of occupied homes in Dearborn County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Indiana county median of 17%.
About 52 nights a year here stay at 65°F or warmer, so basements and crawl spaces can grow mold even without a leak.
Local risk profile
Dearborn County covers 305 square miles of southeast Indiana, with about 51,094 residents and 21,098 homes. Lawrenceburg is the county seat; Hidden Valley, Bright and Greendale are the next largest communities. The county's median home was built in 1982.
39/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Dearborn County ranks 83 of 92 Indiana counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Dearborn County ranks highest compared with other Indiana counties.
Dearborn County is milder than most of Indiana, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. From 2015–2024 it averaged 25 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 92 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 75th of 92 counties.
On February 20, 2015 the low fell to about -9°F, and in the stretch ending January 2018 the county went 13 days in a row below freezing. Leaks from split pipes typically appear the day the thaw arrives.
Expect the hardest freezes in January, inside a season that runs December to March. That's when an outdoor spigot left connected to a hose, or a pipe in a crawl space, is most likely to split.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Oct 31 and the last spring freeze around Apr 16.
Rainfall is about average for Indiana. Of roughly 47.4 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 8.3 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 39th of 92. February, March and April see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 2.91 inches, June 19, 2021. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 4.13 inches (through September 10, 2018).
About 76 days a year swing from below freezing at night to above freezing by day. Those freeze-thaw cycles feed ice dams on roofs, open cracks in foundations and driveways, and stress pipes that are already marginal.
Housing
Indiana's 92 counties range widely in housing age; Dearborn ranks 76th, with 47% of its homes built before 1980.
22% of homes were built in 2000 or later, more than in most of Indiana. Newer plumbing rarely corrodes, so damage here tends to come from appliance supply lines, water heaters, sump pumps and storms.
The 1980s and 1990s account for 30% of the county's homes. If yours is from those decades, look under the sinks and at the water heater for gray plastic pipe stamped PB, which is polybutylene and leak-prone.
Beyond water
Dearborn County averages 52 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in May. Mold grows when indoor humidity stays above about 60%, the EPA's ceiling. A basement dehumidifier set to 50% and drying anything wet within 24 to 48 hours prevents most problems.
Mold remediation: what to expectBy main heating fuel, Dearborn County homes break down as 45% utility gas, 39% electric, 10% propane and 3% wood. Fires here are likelier to start in the kitchen or the wiring than in the furnace. After any fire, keep the HVAC off until ducts are checked, or soot will travel through the house.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Dearborn County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Franklin and Ripley get more pipe-freeze nights than Dearborn. Ripley County has the oldest housing nearby, with 53% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Dearborn | Indiana median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 25% | 35% | 71 of 92 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 47% | 58% | 76 of 92 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 22% | 18% | 23 of 92 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 2.5% | 6.4% | 81 of 92 |
| Vacant homes | 3.9% | 9.2% | 89 of 92 |
| Wood or propane heat | 13% | 17% | 59 of 92 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 25/yr | 33/yr | 75 of 92 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 8.3/yr | 7.8/yr | 39 of 92 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 76/yr | 84/yr | 83 of 92 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 52/yr | 38/yr | 17 of 92 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Indiana county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Dearborn County: freezing from December to March, heavy rain in February, March and April.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year estimates (2020-2024); weather from NOAA nClimGrid-Daily county averages (EpiNOAA), 2015–2024, averaged across the county; county boundaries from Census TIGER. Reviewed 2026-10-21. Methodology