How much flood risk does Westmoreland County actually carry?
Westmoreland County lands at the 93.8th percentile of FEMA's National Risk Index for flooding, "Relatively High" territory — well above the national norm for flood hazard — with the hazard driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about 4.8 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.
Westmoreland County's flood-insurance compliance gap
Homes with a federally backed mortgage inside Westmoreland 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, 20.8% of them do — 566 active policies against 2,720 structures FEMA counts in that zone, leaving a real compliance gap. Across all residential structures in Westmoreland County, not just the ones FEMA mandates, 0.5% carry an NFIP policy — most flood damage nationally happens outside the mapped high-risk zone, so that broader number matters too.
Westmoreland County against the rest of the country
Westmoreland County sits at rank 212 of 3144 counties on FEMA's flood hazard scale (1 is worst) and rank 215 of 3144 by population (1 is biggest). Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania covers 1,027.713 square miles and counts roughly 350,935 residents.
Your street may differ from Westmoreland County's average
Across all of Westmoreland County's 143,144 residential structures, 752 carry an NFIP policy today — a county-wide count that still can't tell you one address's own mapped zone.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly which FEMA and Census tables feed Westmoreland 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.