Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Santa Cruz, CA

California · pop. 270,408 · FIPS 06087

Relatively High
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Drought
dominant hazard
$335M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the highest nationally

national median $15M/yr Santa Cruz $335M

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 97.81/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityRelatively Low 28.09/100
national median ~50 lower than most counties (28th percentile)
Community resilienceRelatively High 71.06/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (71st percentile)

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Santa Cruz

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 1,633 flood-insurance claims totaling $24.8M in Santa Cruz since 1978. The costliest year was 2023 ($7.8M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $47,848 paid 1979: $11,898 paid 1980: $127,243 paid 1981: $55,772 paid 1982: $1,691,264 paid 1983: $1,910,570 paid 1984: $0 paid 1985: $0 paid 1986: $211,626 paid 1987: $515 paid 1988: $0 paid 1989: $0 paid 1991: $1,258 paid 1992: $13,318 paid 1993: $15,427 paid 1994: $2,882 paid 1995: $584,953 paid 1996: $97,548 paid 1997: $189,993 paid 1998: $4,330,073 paid 1999: $6,486 paid 2000: $196,320 paid 2001: $58,576 paid 2002: $162,938 paid 2003: $22,393 paid 2004: $34,299 paid 2005: $337,194 paid 2006: $16,963 paid 2008: $184,225 paid 2009: $9,817 paid 2010: $48,722 paid 2011: $590,762 paid 2012: $252,786 paid 2013: $0 paid 2014: $58,281 paid 2015: $916 paid 2016: $113,953 paid 2017: $1,227,690 paid 2018: $0 paid 2019: $38,595 paid 2021: $76,347 paid 2022: $4,078,356 paid 2023: $7,842,591 paid 2024: $117,463 paid 2025: $0 paid 2023 · $7.8M 1978 2025
$24.8M
total paid
$15,167
average claim
$752K
largest single claim
53%
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 Santa Cruz, CA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Santa Cruz 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.