Lamar County, MS flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Lamar County sits at the 62.1th national percentile, below the national norm for flood hazard; driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 2.5 times a year. This describes the county, not any one street — FEMA only publishes exact parcel zones through a live map service.
Lamar County's flood-insurance compliance gap
48.2% of the homes FEMA requires to carry flood insurance in Lamar County — those inside the mapped Special Flood Hazard Area — actually have a policy in force: 150 policies against 311 mandated structures, which means a meaningful share of legally-required coverage simply isn't there. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 1.2% of all residential structures in Lamar County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Lamar County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Lamar County ranks 1243 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 820 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Lamar County, Mississippi is home to about 66,734 people across 496.57 square miles of land.
Your street may differ from Lamar County's average
Across all of Lamar County's 21,454 residential structures, 251 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Lamar 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.