US Counties With the Highest Expected Yearly Inland Flood Loss
3,144 US counties ranked by expected yearly inland flood loss, from highest to lowest. First are Floyd County, KY (651), Wetzel County, WV (476) and Martin County, KY (458). The middle one of the 3,144 has 81.9.
What this measures
The damage flooding from rivers and heavy rain is expected to do to buildings in an average year, in dollars for every $100,000 that the buildings are worth. Flooding from the sea is not included. FEMA works it out from flood maps and the floods recorded since 1996. Source: FEMA National Risk Index.
For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.
The 100 highest counties
Every state, highest first
Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.
| Rank | State | $ per $100,000 of buildings |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | 230 |
| 2 | West Virginia | 206 |
| 3 | California | 149 |
| 4 | Arizona | 139 |
| 5 | Kentucky | 127 |
| 6 | New Mexico | 123 |
| 7 | Connecticut | 108 |
| 8 | New Hampshire | 106 |
| 9 | Alabama | 101 |
| 10 | Missouri | 98.5 |
| 11 | New Jersey | 97.5 |
| 12 | Wyoming | 96.2 |
| 13 | Illinois | 95.7 |
| 14 | Arkansas | 95.4 |
| 15 | Idaho | 93.2 |
| 16 | Louisiana | 93.1 |
| 17 | Oklahoma | 92.3 |
| 18 | Vermont | 91.4 |
| 19 | Montana | 89.9 |
| 20 | North Carolina | 88.4 |
| 21 | South Dakota | 86.9 |
| 22 | Pennsylvania | 86.4 |
| 23 | Minnesota | 85.3 |
| 24 | Tennessee | 83.8 |
| 25 | Oregon | 83.6 |
| 26 | Nebraska | 83.4 |
| 27 | Washington | 82.6 |
| 28 | Delaware | 82.5 |
| 29 | Mississippi | 81.7 |
| 30 | Texas | 81 |
| 31 | Nevada | 80.9 |
| 32 | Iowa | 80.8 |
| 33 | Colorado | 79.6 |
| 34 | Kansas | 79 |
| 35 | Indiana | 76.6 |
| 36 | Florida | 73 |
| 37 | New York | 72.5 |
| 38 | Rhode Island | 71.8 |
| 39 | Ohio | 71.3 |
| 40 | Georgia | 69.9 |
| 41 | Wisconsin | 68.9 |
| 42 | Virginia | 66.9 |
| 43 | South Carolina | 66.9 |
| 44 | Michigan | 65.6 |
| 45 | Massachusetts | 65.5 |
| 46 | North Dakota | 57 |
| 47 | Maine | 56 |
| 48 | Utah | 52.2 |
| 49 | Maryland | 40.1 |
| 50 | District of Columbia | 29.9 |
| 51 | Alaska | 15 |
More on expected yearly inland flood loss
- US Counties With the Lowest Expected Yearly Inland Flood Loss
- Expected yearly inland flood loss by US county: map by year and what it goes with
A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.