Cass County, NE flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Cass County sits at the 37th national percentile, below the national norm for flood hazard; driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 1.8 times a year. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Cass 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, 29.3% of them do — 263 active policies against 898 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 3% of all residential structures in Cass County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Cass County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Cass County ranks 2045 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1527 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Cass County, Nebraska covers 556.911 square miles and counts roughly 27,492 residents.
Checking a specific address in Cass County
Across all of Cass County's 13,264 residential structures, 403 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Cass County's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. If you're unsure why any of this insurance requirement exists at all, the SFHA explainer covers it from first principles.