Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Monterey, CA

California · pop. 438,599 · FIPS 06053

Relatively High
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Drought
dominant hazard
$402M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

Expected annual loss · all 3,232 U.S. counties

among the highest nationally

national median $15M/yr Monterey $402M

A real dollar distribution: most counties sit far below a handful of high-exposure ones. A FEMA model of annual loss, not a record of disasters.

FEMA national percentile scores

FEMA/CDC score each county 0–100 against all others — the score is the national rank (RATING). Higher risk and vulnerability are worse; higher resilience is better.

FEMA risk indexRelatively High 98.73/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityRelatively Moderate 54.83/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (55th percentile)
Community resilienceRelatively Low 24.65/100
national median ~50 lower than most counties (25th percentile)

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Monterey

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 1,492 flood-insurance claims totaling $42.2M in Monterey since 1978. The costliest year was 1995 ($19.7M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $134,352 paid 1979: $2,689 paid 1980: $0 paid 1982: $58,860 paid 1983: $180,495 paid 1986: $112,522 paid 1989: $0 paid 1991: $3,862 paid 1992: $221 paid 1993: $793,145 paid 1995: $19,673,989 paid 1996: $40,567 paid 1997: $47,707 paid 1998: $1,847,189 paid 1999: $4,771 paid 2000: $67,557 paid 2001: $125,670 paid 2002: $2,576,741 paid 2003: $4,276 paid 2005: $0 paid 2006: $0 paid 2008: $556,515 paid 2009: $13,559 paid 2010: $0 paid 2011: $15,462 paid 2012: $6,396 paid 2014: $66,077 paid 2016: $60,493 paid 2017: $1,428,079 paid 2018: $4,559 paid 2019: $80,242 paid 2021: $513,415 paid 2022: $214,885 paid 2023: $13,196,406 paid 2024: $365,381 paid 1995 · $19.7M 1978 2024
$42.2M
total paid
$28,282
average claim
$627K
largest single claim
77%
in high-risk flood zones (A/V)

RECORDED — these are actual paid NFIP claims (a redacted census from OpenFEMA), not a model. They are the realized counterpart to the FEMA risk score above: one is what happened and got paid, the other is what a model predicts.

Scope: these are flood-insurance claims, so they undercount flooding where owners were uninsured — read this as "what NFIP paid here," not "every flood." County-level totals, not a per-property or per-address verdict. Verify a specific address and buy coverage at FloodSmart.gov; the underlying data is OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims.

What these figures mean

  • RATING — the FEMA risk score, expected loss, social vulnerability, and resilience are FEMA/CDC models, not records of disasters that happened. The 0–100 scores are already national percentiles.
  • MEASURED — population is a recorded census figure.
  • COMPUTED — the county's rank within the dollar-loss distribution is our placement over the 3,232 counties.
  • CONTEXT — the note below is framing, not a measurement.

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What this is — and is not

This is FEMA/CDC modeled hazard exposure for Monterey, CA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Monterey is a good or bad place to live — hazard exposure is not place quality, and a county can't opt out of its geography. It is not a per-property or per-address risk assessment, not a prediction of any specific disaster, and not insurance advice. For site-specific risk use a per-property assessment; for the underlying model see FEMA National Risk Index.