De Soto Parish, LA: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, De Soto Parish scores at the 46.2th 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 1.2 times a year. This describes the county, not any one street — FEMA only publishes exact parcel zones through a live map service.
De Soto Parish's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside De Soto Parish's mapped high-risk flood zone (the Special Flood Hazard Area, or SFHA) are legally required to carry an NFIP flood policy. In practice, 13.6% of them do — 41 active policies against 302 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.7% of all residential structures in De Soto Parish carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How De Soto Parish compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, De Soto Parish ranks 1753 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1531 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. De Soto Parish, Louisiana is home to about 27,274 people across 876.45 square miles of land.
Checking a specific address in De Soto Parish
Across all of De Soto Parish's 9,682 residential structures, 63 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where De Soto Parish'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.