Palo Alto County, IA: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Palo Alto County scores at the 9th 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 1.9 times a year. This describes the county, not any one street — FEMA only publishes exact parcel zones through a live map service.
Mandatory flood insurance compliance in Palo Alto County
FEMA hasn't published a residential structure count for Palo Alto County's mapped flood zone, so a reliable mandatory-compliance percentage can't be computed here — see the data quality guide for why this gap exists for roughly a quarter of US counties. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.2% of all residential structures in Palo Alto County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Palo Alto County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Palo Alto County ranks 2877 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 2505 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Palo Alto County, Iowa covers 563.864 square miles and counts roughly 8,809 residents.
Checking a specific address in Palo Alto County
8 of Palo Alto County's 5,396 residential structures carry flood coverage of some kind, per FEMA's latest count — useful context, not a substitute for checking one parcel.
Where Palo Alto County's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. Palo Alto County's compliance figure is one of the ones affected by FEMA's incomplete denominator data — the data quality guide explains what that means and how many counties it touches.