Updated May 2026
Flood Risk in Bladen, NC
Bladen, NC has a Flood Risk Score of 16/100 (Grade A), ranking #496 of 3,277 counties nationwide. The risk level is Low. There have been 39 NFIP flood-insurance claims totaling $2,729,704 in payouts, with 19 federal disaster declarations on record.
Key Data
What the Grade Means Here
Bladen sits in the lowest-risk tier in the FEMA dataset — composite score 16, ranked #496 of 3,277 counties (where #1 is the riskiest). The county has logged 39 NFIP flood-insurance claims and 19 federal flood-related disaster declarations to date. An A grade does not mean zero risk: flash floods, sewer backups, and rare extreme storms can still cause loss, and FEMA reports more than 25% of all NFIP payouts originate from properties outside Special Flood Hazard Areas.
Within North Carolina, Bladen carries flood risk roughly typical of the state, where the average composite score is 15. The county ranks #31 of 101 state-internally. The full North Carolina state profile shows how every county within the state compares.
What's Driving the Risk Score?
The single biggest driver of the composite score in this county is federal disaster frequency (25% of the formula, factor score 40). For Bladen, that means the cadence of federally declared flood-related disasters dominates — large enough events to exceed state and local response capacity have repeated multiple times.
The trend factor sits at 38 of 100 — a moderate signal that recent NFIP claim volume in this county has not been markedly worse than the long-run average. Watch for shifts after major storm seasons.
Score Breakdown
| Factor | Score | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Claims Density | 0 | 40% |
| Disaster Frequency | 40 | 25% |
| Claim Severity | 0 | 20% |
| Year-over-Year Trend | 38 | 15% |
How This Score Is Calculated
The composite is a weighted average of four FEMA-derived factors. Source data comes from the public FEMA flood-mapping program via the OpenFEMA API. For property-level decisions, layer this with the parcel's FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map zone and recent crest readings from USGS Water Data. Full math: methodology page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the flood risk in Bladen, NC?
Bladen, NC has a Flood Risk Score of 16/100 (Grade A), ranking #496 of 3,277 counties nationwide. The risk level is Low. There have been 39 NFIP flood-insurance claims totaling $2,729,704 in payouts, with 19 federal disaster declarations on record.
Is flood insurance required in Bladen?
Federal law requires flood insurance for any property in a Special Flood Hazard Area (FEMA Zone A or V) financed by a federally regulated lender. Bladen's county-wide composite score is 16 (Grade A), which is a county aggregate — your specific parcel's flood-zone designation comes from the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) at fema.gov/flood-maps. Even when not legally required, NFIP coverage is often available for a few hundred dollars a year in moderate- and low-risk zones, and FEMA reports more than 25% of all NFIP claims come from outside high-risk zones.
What is driving the flood risk score in Bladen?
The single biggest driver of the composite score in this county is federal disaster frequency (25% of the formula, factor score 40). For Bladen, that means the cadence of federally declared flood-related disasters dominates — large enough events to exceed state and local response capacity have repeated multiple times.
Is flood risk increasing or decreasing in Bladen?
The trend factor sits at 38 of 100 — a moderate signal that recent NFIP claim volume in this county has not been markedly worse than the long-run average. Watch for shifts after major storm seasons.
How does Bladen compare to other counties in North Carolina?
Within North Carolina, Bladen carries flood risk roughly typical of the state, where the average composite score is 15. The county ranks #31 of 101 state-internally.
Where does this data come from?
Every figure on this page comes from FEMA's public OpenFEMA API — the DisasterDeclarationsSummaries v2 endpoint (federally declared flood-related disasters) and the FimaNfipClaims endpoint (individual NFIP flood-insurance claims aggregated by county FIPS code). Both are public-domain U.S. government work. Real-time stream-gauge readings that complement these federal aggregates live at USGS Water Data. Last updated 2026-05-16.
Bladen, NC has a Flood Risk Score of 16/100 (Grade A), ranking #496 of 3,277 counties nationwide. The risk level is Low. There have been 39 NFIP flood-insurance claims totaling $2,729,704 in payouts, with 19 federal disaster declarations on record.
This answer pulls from FEMA OpenFEMA datasets including the National Flood Hazard Layer and NFIP claims, the authoritative federal source for U.S. flood risk, NFIP claims, and disaster declarations. The headline number above is the direct answer; what follows is the additional context most readers need to use the answer for a real decision rather than just a fact lookup.
For readers turning this answer into action: cross-reference against the underlying FEMA OpenFEMA datasets including the National Flood Hazard Layer and NFIP claims record before acting on time-sensitive decisions. The site renders the data as it was published; subsequent revisions can shift the picture, and the live federal data is always the authoritative current reference.