Knox County, NE flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Knox County sits at the 31.3th national percentile, among the lowest flood hazard in the country; driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 1.1 times a year. 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
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Knox 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, 7.6% of them do — 46 active policies against 604 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.7% of all residential structures in Knox County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Knox County against the rest of the country
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Knox County ranks 2219 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 2552 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Knox County, Nebraska is home to about 8,306 people across 1,108.235 square miles of land.
Checking a specific address in Knox County
Across all of Knox County's 8,886 residential structures, 65 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Knox 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.