Buena Vista County, IA: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Buena Vista County scores at the 32.9th 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 2.1 times a year. That's a county-wide figure, not a per-address one — FEMA's parcel maps are a live lookup, not a bulk file.
Mandatory flood insurance compliance in Buena Vista County
FEMA hasn't published a residential structure count for Buena Vista County'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, 0.1% of all residential structures in Buena Vista County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Buena Vista County against the rest of the country
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Buena Vista County ranks 2169 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1778 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Buena Vista County, Iowa is home to about 20,816 people across 574.899 square miles of land.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Buena Vista County
Across all of Buena Vista County's 8,072 residential structures, 11 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Buena Vista County's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. Buena Vista County'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.