Benton County, Missouri · Warsaw
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Warsaw, Lincoln and Cole Camp. 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 15% of homes built before 1960 and about 27 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
Heavy rain days of an inch or more come about 10.9 times a year here, most often in July. A sump pump that hasn't run since last season is a common weak point.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Benton County gets about 10.9 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
In Benton County, 4.55 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
25% of occupied homes in Benton County heat mainly with wood or propane, close to the Missouri county median of 24.5%.
About 66 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
Benton County covers 704 square miles of central Missouri, with about 20,151 residents and 13,594 homes. The county seat is Warsaw, and Lincoln, Cole Camp and Bent Tree Harbor round out the largest towns. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 1985.
41/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Benton County ranks 88 of 114 Missouri counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Benton County ranks highest compared with other Missouri counties.
Pipe-freeze risk in Benton County sits near the middle of the state. It averaged 93 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 27 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 114 Missouri counties that's 59th.
The longest cold spell was straight 13 days without the temperature rising above freezing, ending in February 2021. The coldest night reached about -13°F on February 16, 2021. Burst pipes usually show up when a spell like that breaks and the ice thaws.
The freeze season here runs December to February, with January the coldest. If you travel then, leave the thermostat at 55°F or above and open sink cabinets on outside walls.
Freezing nights typically start around Oct 28 and end around Apr 9.
Rainfall is about average for Missouri. Of roughly 42.7 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 10.9 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 49th of 114. May, June and July see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 4.55 inches, August 6, 2017. The worst three-day stretch dropped 5.01 inches, ending May 1, 2017, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
About 78 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 42% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Benton among the newer housing stocks of Missouri's 114 counties.
Growth since 2000 added 27% 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.
About 31% of homes went up between 1980 and 1999. Some houses from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s were plumbed with polybutylene, a gray plastic pipe known for failing at fittings. A plumber can tell you in a few minutes whether you have it.
21% of homes are manufactured or mobile homes, above the Missouri county median of 9.8%. Their water lines run under the floor behind the skirting, so a torn skirt or failed heat tape freezes them faster than lines in a site-built house.
The Census counted 37% of homes as vacant, above the Missouri county median of 15.3%. Empty houses are where a small leak turns into a large claim, because nobody is there to hear it.
Beyond water
Summer nights that don't drop below 65°F, a good marker of humid air, come about 66 times a year here, close to the Missouri county median of 64.5. Keep indoor humidity under 60%, as the EPA advises, and dry any leak within 24 to 48 hours; in a humid month a wet basement left alone won't dry by itself.
Mold remediation: what to expectHeating fuel matters for fire risk. In Benton County it's 7% utility gas, 66% electric, 18% propane and 7% wood. Wood heat is above the Missouri norm. Annual chimney and vent inspection, which the NFPA recommends, is one of the most effective fire-prevention habits for these homes.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Benton County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Pettis gets more pipe-freeze nights than Benton. Pettis County has the oldest housing nearby, with 59% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Benton | Missouri median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 15% | 25% | 99 of 114 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 42% | 53% | 96 of 114 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 27% | 21% | 23 of 114 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 21% | 9.8% | 4 of 114 |
| Vacant homes | 37% | 15% | 3 of 114 |
| Wood or propane heat | 25% | 25% | 61 of 114 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 27/yr | 28/yr | 59 of 114 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 11/yr | 10/yr | 49 of 114 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 78/yr | 77/yr | 48 of 114 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 66/yr | 65/yr | 50 of 114 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Missouri county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Benton County: freezing from December to February, heavy rain in May, June 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