Cherokee County, AL: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Cherokee County scores at the 70.4th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Relatively Low" — below the national norm for flood hazard. 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 1 years. That's a county-wide figure, not a per-address one — FEMA's parcel maps are a live lookup, not a bulk file.
Cherokee County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Cherokee 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, 14.5% of them do — 140 active policies against 967 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 1.3% of all residential structures in Cherokee County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Cherokee County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Cherokee County ranks 971 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1572 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Cherokee County, Alabama is home to about 26,138 people across 553.617 square miles of land.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Cherokee County
Across all of Cherokee County's 13,334 residential structures, 170 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Cherokee 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.