How much flood risk does Reno County actually carry?
Reno County lands at the 70.9th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Relatively Low" territory — below the national norm for flood hazard — with the hazard driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 1.7 times a year. County-wide, not parcel-specific: FEMA's real flood-zone map is queried live, never shipped as a download.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Reno 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, 11.9% of them do — 163 active policies against 1,370 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in Reno 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 Reno County compares nationally
Reno County sits at rank 953 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 879 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Reno County, Kansas is home to about 61,417 people across 1,255.307 square miles of land.
Checking a specific address in Reno County
Across all of Reno County's 27,794 residential structures, 185 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 Reno 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.