Telfair County, GA: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Telfair County scores at the 27.8th 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. That's a county-wide figure, not a per-address one — FEMA's parcel maps are a live lookup, not a bulk file.
Telfair County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Telfair 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, 6.4% of them do — 5 active policies against 78 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0.1% of all residential structures in Telfair County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Telfair County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Telfair County ranks 2319 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 2345 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Telfair County, Georgia is home to about 11,000 people across 437.307 square miles of land.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Telfair County
5 of Telfair County's 5,919 residential structures carry flood coverage of some kind, per FEMA's latest count — useful context, not a substitute for checking one parcel.
Where Telfair 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.