Cayuga County, NY flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Cayuga County sits at the 78.1th national percentile, a middling flood hazard by national standards; driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 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.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Cayuga 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, 17.2% of them do — 235 active policies against 1,364 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.9% of all residential structures in Cayuga County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Cayuga County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Cayuga County ranks 719 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 754 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Cayuga County, New York is home to about 74,567 people across 691.589 square miles of land.
Checking a specific address in Cayuga County
279 of Cayuga County's 31,557 residential structures carry flood coverage of some kind, per FEMA's latest count — useful context, not a substitute for checking one parcel.
Where Cayuga 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.