Letcher County, KY flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Letcher County sits at the 83.1th national percentile, a middling flood hazard by national standards; driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 2 times a year. That's a county-wide figure, not a per-address one — FEMA's parcel maps are a live lookup, not a bulk file.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
Out of 1,459 homes FEMA counts inside Letcher County's mapped flood zone, 138 carry the flood policy federal law requires there — 9.5% compliance, short of full coverage. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 1.4% of all residential structures in Letcher County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Letcher County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Letcher County ranks 555 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1820 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Letcher County, Kentucky is home to about 20,139 people across 337.934 square miles of land.
Your street may differ from Letcher County's average
FEMA counts 11,820 residential structures in Letcher County overall, 160 of them carrying some form of NFIP coverage — but a lender or insurer cares about one parcel, not that county total.
Where Letcher 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.