Hayes County, NE: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Hayes County scores at the 1.4th 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 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.
Hayes County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Hayes 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, 6.3% of them do — 1 active policies against 16 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.2% of all residential structures in Hayes County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Hayes County against the rest of the country
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Hayes County ranks 3106 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 3115 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Hayes County, Nebraska is home to about 846 people across 713.065 square miles of land.
Checking a specific address in Hayes County
Across all of Hayes County's 1,169 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 Hayes 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.