Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Polk, IA

Iowa · pop. 492,316 · FIPS 19153

Relatively Moderate
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Strong Wind
dominant hazard
$138M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

near the national middle (42nd percentile)

national median $15M/yr Polk $138M

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 Moderate 91.98/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityVery Low 16.98/100
national median ~50 among the lowest nationally
Community resilienceVery High 91.19/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Polk

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 1,526 flood-insurance claims totaling $36.8M in Polk since 1978. The costliest year was 2018 ($10.2M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $4,952 paid 1979: $15,074 paid 1980: $4,380 paid 1981: $9,821 paid 1982: $13,477 paid 1983: $42,954 paid 1984: $18,897 paid 1986: $587,208 paid 1987: $1,276 paid 1990: $1,488,271 paid 1991: $0 paid 1993: $8,520,211 paid 1995: $0 paid 1996: $3,908 paid 1997: $311,430 paid 1998: $1,103,701 paid 1999: $0 paid 2000: $1,165 paid 2001: $462 paid 2002: $39,356 paid 2003: $0 paid 2004: $224,146 paid 2005: $0 paid 2006: $235 paid 2007: $177,477 paid 2008: $7,568,816 paid 2009: $9,222 paid 2010: $3,638,348 paid 2011: $33,797 paid 2012: $5,955 paid 2013: $100,717 paid 2014: $7,660 paid 2015: $2,188,542 paid 2018: $10,156,443 paid 2019: $511,855 paid 2020: $0 paid 2021: $8,920 paid 2023: $0 paid 2024: $47,256 paid 2025: $0 paid 2026: $1,969 paid 2018 · $10.2M 1978 2026
$36.8M
total paid
$24,147
average claim
$1.0M
largest single claim
73%
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 Polk, IA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Polk 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.