Wayne County, WV: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Wayne County scores at the 89.2th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Relatively Moderate" — a middling flood hazard by national standards. 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 2.3 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.
Wayne County's flood-insurance compliance gap
8.5% of the homes FEMA requires to carry flood insurance in Wayne County — those inside the mapped Special Flood Hazard Area — actually have a policy in force: 139 policies against 1,627 mandated structures, which means a meaningful share of legally-required coverage simply isn't there. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 1% of all residential structures in Wayne County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
Where Wayne County ranks
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Wayne County ranks 358 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 1249 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Wayne County, West Virginia covers 506.005 square miles and counts roughly 37,589 residents.
Checking a specific address in Wayne County
Across all of Wayne County's 16,705 residential structures, 161 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
Where Wayne 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.