Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Harlan, KY

Kentucky · pop. 26,728 · FIPS 21095

Relatively Low
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Landslide
dominant hazard
$18M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the lowest nationally

national median $15M/yr Harlan $18M

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 Low 65.74/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (66th percentile)
Social vulnerabilityRelatively High 79.99/100
national median ~50 higher than 80% of counties
Community resilienceVery Low 13.68/100
national median ~50 among the lowest nationally

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Harlan

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 440 flood-insurance claims totaling $2.3M in Harlan since 1978. The costliest year was 2002 ($1.2M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $19,841 paid 1979: $4,846 paid 1980: $500 paid 1981: $110 paid 1982: $5,724 paid 1983: $0 paid 1984: $324,467 paid 1985: $0 paid 1986: $0 paid 1988: $0 paid 1989: $0 paid 1990: $34,432 paid 1991: $139,932 paid 1994: $116,310 paid 1995: $0 paid 1996: $7,257 paid 1997: $2,744 paid 1998: $6,703 paid 2001: $0 paid 2002: $1,175,864 paid 2003: $42,890 paid 2004: $41,816 paid 2006: $0 paid 2007: $993 paid 2009: $5,067 paid 2010: $59,912 paid 2011: $6,874 paid 2012: $25,002 paid 2013: $1,952 paid 2015: $0 paid 2016: $54,670 paid 2017: $0 paid 2018: $54,912 paid 2020: $159,887 paid 2021: $1,549 paid 2024: $18,449 paid 2025: $12,982 paid 2002 · $1.2M 1978 2025
$2.3M
total paid
$5,286
average claim
$70K
largest single claim
75%
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 Harlan, KY and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Harlan 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.