Stone County, MO flood risk explained
Flood hazard in Stone County sits at the 74.7th national percentile, a middling flood hazard by national standards; driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 2.6 times a year. This describes the county, not any one street — FEMA only publishes exact parcel zones through a live map service.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Stone 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, 10.9% of them do — 30 active policies against 275 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.3% of all residential structures in Stone County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Stone County against the rest of the country
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Stone County ranks 832 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1378 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. About 32,630 people live in Stone County, Missouri, spread over 463.813 square miles.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Stone County
Across all of Stone County's 20,261 residential structures, 50 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Stone 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.