How much flood risk does Pottawatomie County actually carry?
Pottawatomie County lands at the 34th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Very Low" territory — among the lowest flood hazard in the country — with the hazard driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 1 times a year. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Pottawatomie County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Pottawatomie 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, 11.5% of them do — 44 active policies against 383 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in Pottawatomie County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 0.8% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
Pottawatomie County against the rest of the country
Pottawatomie County sits at rank 2134 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 1544 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). About 26,876 people live in Pottawatomie County, Kansas, spread over 840.735 square miles.
Your street may differ from Pottawatomie County's average
Across all of Pottawatomie County's 11,064 residential structures, 85 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly which FEMA and Census tables feed Pottawatomie County's numbers. The guide to what the Special Flood Hazard Area actually means explains why the mandatory-insurance rule exists and who it applies to.