Powhatan County, VA: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Powhatan County scores at the 29.7th 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 once every 2 years. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Mandatory flood insurance compliance in Powhatan County
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Powhatan 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, 32% of them do — 8 active policies against 25 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.4% of all residential structures in Powhatan County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Powhatan County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Powhatan County ranks 2266 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1385 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Powhatan County, Virginia is home to about 32,392 people across 260.202 square miles of land.
Checking a specific address in Powhatan County
Across all of Powhatan County's 11,480 residential structures, 41 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Powhatan 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.