Foster County, ND: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Foster County scores at the 3.2th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Very Low" — among the lowest flood hazard in the country. 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 4 years. This describes the county, not any one street — FEMA only publishes exact parcel zones through a live map service.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
FEMA hasn't published a residential structure count for Foster County's mapped flood zone, so a reliable mandatory-compliance percentage can't be computed here — see the data quality guide for why this gap exists for roughly a quarter of US counties. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.1% of all residential structures in Foster County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Foster County against the rest of the country
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Foster County ranks 3049 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 2935 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Foster County, North Dakota covers 634.08 square miles and counts roughly 3,323 residents.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Foster County
Across all of Foster County's 1,384 residential structures, 2 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Foster County's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. Foster County's compliance figure is one of the ones affected by FEMA's incomplete denominator data — the data quality guide explains what that means and how many counties it touches.