How much flood risk does Cabell County actually carry?
Cabell County lands at the 91.9th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Relatively Moderate" territory — a middling flood hazard by national standards — with the hazard driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 2.8 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 Cabell County
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Cabell County's mapped high-risk flood zone (the Special Flood Hazard Area, or SFHA) are legally required to carry an NFIP flood policy. In practice, 13.5% of them do — 232 active policies against 1,717 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in Cabell County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 0.9% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
Cabell County against the rest of the country
Cabell County sits at rank 273 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 663 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Cabell County, West Virginia covers 281.025 square miles and counts roughly 91,489 residents.
Your street may differ from Cabell County's average
Across all of Cabell County's 33,096 residential structures, 305 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly which FEMA and Census tables feed Cabell County's numbers. The guide to what the Special Flood Hazard Area actually means explains why the mandatory-insurance rule exists and who it applies to.