Scott County, Indiana · Scottsburg
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Scottsburg, Austin and Blocher. 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.
With 20% of homes built before 1960 and about 24 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
Basements flood here mostly in July. Scott County averages 11.2 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Sewage backups in Scott County spike on heavy-rain days, about 11.2 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Scott County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 3.13 inches, and about 79 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
11% of occupied homes in Scott County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Indiana county median of 17%.
With 53 muggy nights a year, mold in Scott County can appear within days of a leak. Dry first, then clean.
Local risk profile
Scott County covers 190 square miles of southeast Indiana, with about 24,526 residents and 10,840 homes. Besides Scottsburg, the county seat, the biggest communities are Austin and Blocher. The county's median home was built in 1983.
40/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Scott County ranks 81 of 92 Indiana counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Scott County ranks highest compared with other Indiana counties.
Scott County is milder than most of Indiana, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. From 2015–2024 it averaged 24 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 91 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 78th of 92 counties.
Cold snaps are the real risk. The worst in the record lasted 13 days below freezing (ending January 2018), and the low bottomed out near -13°F on February 21, 2015.
Most freezing nights fall from November to March, peaking in January. Disconnect garden hoses and shut off outdoor spigots before the first hard frost, and keep the heat at 55°F or higher if you'll be away.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Oct 30 and the last spring freeze around Apr 17.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Indiana. The county gets about 50.4 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 11.2 days of an inch or more (20th of 92). Those downpours cluster in February, March and July, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 3.13 inches on September 9, 2018. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 4.73 inches (through August 18, 2018).
About 79 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
Roughly 46% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Scott among the newer housing stocks of Indiana's 92 counties.
Growth since 2000 added 23% of today's homes. In houses that new, the weak points are washing machine hoses, ice maker lines, water heaters and sump pumps rather than the pipes in the walls.
31% date from 1980 to 1999, the window when polybutylene, a gray flexible plastic supply pipe, was used in some homes. It's prone to leaks at the fittings, so it's worth checking for in a house from those years.
Manufactured and mobile homes make up 17% of the housing here. Water lines in the underbelly depend on intact skirting and working heat tape, and they're usually the first to freeze in a cold snap.
Renters occupy 29% of homes. If you rent, the building is usually the landlord's to repair, but your belongings are only covered by renters insurance.
Beyond water
About 53 nights a year in Scott County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (16th of 92 counties). July is the wettest month. The EPA recommends keeping indoor humidity below 60%, ideally 30 to 50%. Basements can pass 60% on their own in summer, so a dehumidifier matters even without a leak, and anything wet should be dried within 24 to 48 hours.
Mold remediation: what to expectMain heating fuel in Scott County's occupied homes: 24% utility gas, 63% electric, 6% propane and 4% wood. Wood heat is more common here than the state median. Have chimneys swept and fuel-burning appliances serviced each fall, and keep three feet clear around stoves and space heaters.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Scott County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Jackson and Washington get more pipe-freeze nights than Scott. Jefferson County has the oldest housing nearby, with 65% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Scott | Indiana median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 20% | 35% | 82 of 92 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 46% | 58% | 80 of 92 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 23% | 18% | 19 of 92 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 17% | 6.4% | 7 of 92 |
| Vacant homes | 9.2% | 9.2% | 46 of 92 |
| Wood or propane heat | 11% | 17% | 65 of 92 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 24/yr | 33/yr | 78 of 92 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 11/yr | 7.8/yr | 20 of 92 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 79/yr | 84/yr | 70 of 92 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 53/yr | 38/yr | 16 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 Scott County: freezing from November to March, heavy rain in February, March and July.
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