Lee County, VA: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Lee County scores at the 72.8th 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 once every 2 years. That's a county-wide figure, not a per-address one — FEMA's parcel maps are a live lookup, not a bulk file.
Lee County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Lee 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, 5.1% of them do — 25 active policies against 488 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.3% of all residential structures in Lee County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Lee County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Lee County ranks 895 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1731 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. About 21,780 people live in Lee County, Virginia, spread over 435.378 square miles.
Your street may differ from Lee County's average
Across all of Lee County's 10,714 residential structures, 32 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Lee 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.