Is Ray County, MO in a flood zone?
FEMA's National Risk Index puts Ray County's flood hazard at the 48.8th percentile nationally — 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 1.7 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.
Ray County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Ray 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, 12.5% of them do — 57 active policies against 457 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in Ray County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 0.7% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
How Ray County compares nationally
Ray County sits at rank 1670 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 1677 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Ray County, Missouri is home to about 23,199 people across 568.979 square miles of land.
Checking a specific address in Ray County
Across all of Ray County's 10,584 residential structures, 73 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 Ray 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.