Panola County, MS flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Panola County sits at the 43.9th 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 1.1 times a year. This describes the county, not any one street — FEMA only publishes exact parcel zones through a live map service.
Panola County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Panola 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, 13.8% of them do — 71 active policies against 513 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.7% of all residential structures in Panola County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Panola County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Panola County ranks 1823 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1375 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Panola County, Mississippi is home to about 32,764 people across 685.18 square miles of land.
Checking a specific address in Panola County
Across all of Panola County's 13,021 residential structures, 84 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Panola 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.