How much flood risk does Umatilla County actually carry?
Umatilla County lands at the 81.5th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Relatively Moderate" territory — a middling flood hazard by national standards — with the hazard 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.
Umatilla County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Umatilla 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, 17.9% of them do — 167 active policies against 934 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in Umatilla 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.
Where Umatilla County ranks
Umatilla County sits at rank 609 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 725 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Umatilla County, Oregon is home to about 80,491 people across 3,215.45 square miles of land.
Your street may differ from Umatilla County's average
213 of Umatilla County's 29,501 residential structures carry flood coverage of some kind, per FEMA's latest count — useful context, not a substitute for checking one parcel.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly which FEMA and Census tables feed Umatilla 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.