Millions of rural properties seen to be at higher risk of severe flooding than FEMA estimates; see county-level maps

Hidden flood risk, estimated by county, 2020
(Map by Jeremy Ney, American Inequality; click image to enlarge or click here for the original.)

Many rural areas of the U.S. are at a far higher risk of severe flooding than Federal Emergency Management Agency maps reflect, according to the First Street Foundation, a nonprofit that charts property flooding risks. FEMA maps may be inaccurate because they don't adequately assess flood risk that comes from rainfall only. The Pacific Northwest and Central Appalachia in particular are hotbeds of hidden flood risk, which is "the discrepancy between how much flooding FEMA claims happens versus how much flooding actually happens," Alex Acquisto and Brian Simms report for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Read the report with state-level data here, and see the Herald-Leader article about Eastern Ketucky for an interactive county-level map.