How much flood risk does Wahkiakum County actually carry?
Wahkiakum County lands at the 70.4th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Relatively Moderate" territory — a middling flood hazard by national standards — with the hazard driven by coastal storm surge rather than inland rivers — FEMA's model puts a surge event here at about 4.4 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.
Mandatory flood insurance compliance in Wahkiakum County
Wahkiakum County is one of the counties where FEMA's own denominator for mandated flood-zone structures is missing, so no compliance rate is shown rather than a guessed one — the data quality guide covers how common this is. Across all residential structures in Wahkiakum County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 5.3% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
Where Wahkiakum County ranks
Wahkiakum County sits at rank 972 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 2833 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). About 4,800 people live in Wahkiakum County, Washington, spread over 262.928 square miles.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Wahkiakum County
110 of Wahkiakum County's 2,066 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 Wahkiakum County's numbers. See the data quality guide for why Wahkiakum County, like hundreds of other counties, doesn't get a clean compliance percentage.