Cape Girardeau County, Missouri · Jackson
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Delta. 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 21% of homes built before 1960 and about 18 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
March brings the most downpours to Cape Girardeau County, part of 13 heavy-rain days a year. Check the sump first.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Cape Girardeau County gets about 13 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
In Cape Girardeau County, 3.51 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
10% of occupied homes in Cape Girardeau County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Missouri county median of 24.5%.
About 77 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
About 82,735 people live in Cape Girardeau County, 579 square miles in southeast Missouri, in roughly 36,086 homes. Besides Jackson, the county seat, the biggest communities are Cape Girardeau, Delta and Gordonville. Half the homes here were built before 1982, half after.
48/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Cape Girardeau County ranks 66 of 114 Missouri counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Cape Girardeau County ranks highest compared with other Missouri counties.
Winters here are on the gentler end for Missouri, and pipes still freeze. In the 2015–2024 record the county logged about 18 nights a year at or below 20°F (103rd of 114) and 79 below freezing. Twenty degrees is roughly where uninsulated pipes start to freeze.
The longest cold spell was straight 11 days without the temperature rising above freezing, ending in February 2021. The coldest night reached about -8°F on February 19, 2015. Burst pipes usually show up when a spell like that breaks and the ice thaws.
Expect the hardest freezes in January, inside a season that runs December to February. That's when an outdoor spigot left connected to a hose, or a pipe in a crawl space, is most likely to split.
Freezing nights typically start around Oct 28 and end around Mar 27.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Missouri. The county gets about 49.8 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 13 days of an inch or more (12th of 114). Those downpours cluster in February, March and April, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 3.51 inches on April 30, 2017. The worst three-day stretch dropped 7.52 inches, ending August 16, 2016, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
About 68 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
Missouri's 114 counties range widely in housing age; Cape Girardeau ranks 76th, with 48% of its homes built before 1980.
Since 2000 the county has added enough housing that 25% of homes are that new. Modern PEX and copper rarely fail on their own; the leaks come from connections, appliances and storms.
The 1980s and 1990s account for 27% 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.
Renters occupy 33% 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
Cape Girardeau County averages 77 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in May. 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 expectBy main heating fuel, Cape Girardeau County homes break down as 41% utility gas, 48% electric, 8% propane and 2% wood. Heating equipment, cooking and electrical failures cause most home fires nationally. Even a small kitchen fire can leave soot through the whole house, because smoke follows air currents into closets, ducts and attic space.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Cape Girardeau County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Bollinger and Perry get more pipe-freeze nights than Cape Girardeau. Scott County has the oldest housing nearby, with 60% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Cape Girardeau | Missouri median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 21% | 25% | 79 of 114 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 48% | 53% | 76 of 114 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 25% | 21% | 34 of 114 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 5.1% | 9.8% | 96 of 114 |
| Vacant homes | 10% | 15% | 91 of 114 |
| Wood or propane heat | 10% | 25% | 100 of 114 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 18/yr | 28/yr | 103 of 114 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 13/yr | 10/yr | 12 of 114 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 68/yr | 77/yr | 103 of 114 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 77/yr | 65/yr | 12 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 Cape Girardeau County: freezing from December to February, 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