Buena Vista city, VA: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Buena Vista city scores at the 16.4th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Very Low" — among the lowest flood hazard in the country. The hazard here is driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about once every 3 years. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Mandatory flood insurance compliance in Buena Vista city
FEMA hasn't published a residential structure count for Buena Vista city's mapped flood zone, so a reliable mandatory-compliance percentage can't be computed here — see the data quality guide for why this gap exists for roughly a quarter of US counties. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.8% of all residential structures in Buena Vista city carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Where Buena Vista city ranks
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Buena Vista city ranks 2662 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 2695 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Buena Vista city, Virginia covers 6.438 square miles and counts roughly 6,581 residents.
Your street may differ from Buena Vista city's average
FEMA counts 2,539 residential structures in Buena Vista city overall, 20 of them carrying some form of NFIP coverage — but a lender or insurer cares about one parcel, not that county total.
Where Buena Vista city's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. Buena Vista city's compliance figure is one of the ones affected by FEMA's incomplete denominator data — the data quality guide explains what that means and how many counties it touches.