Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Penobscot, ME

Maine · pop. 152,080 · FIPS 23019

Relatively Low
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Winter Weather
dominant hazard
$41M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the lowest nationally

national median $15M/yr Penobscot $41M

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 78.02/100
national median ~50 higher than 78% of counties
Social vulnerabilityRelatively Low 31.46/100
national median ~50 lower than most counties (31st percentile)
Community resilienceVery High 93.51/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Penobscot

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 238 flood-insurance claims totaling $1.7M in Penobscot since 1978. The costliest year was 1987 ($916K paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $9,933 paid 1979: $20,574 paid 1980: $0 paid 1981: $3,297 paid 1982: $0 paid 1983: $63,744 paid 1984: $2,767 paid 1986: $3,730 paid 1987: $916,155 paid 1989: $0 paid 1991: $798 paid 1992: $0 paid 1993: $10,145 paid 1994: $17,659 paid 1995: $563 paid 1996: $3,234 paid 1998: $16,533 paid 1999: $30,018 paid 2003: $0 paid 2005: $92,699 paid 2007: $13,380 paid 2008: $312,543 paid 2010: $52,788 paid 2011: $42,942 paid 2014: $18,688 paid 2015: $14,212 paid 2017: $0 paid 2018: $9,631 paid 2019: $0 paid 2023: $46,384 paid 2024: $2,723 paid 1987 · $916K 1978 2024
$1.7M
total paid
$7,164
average claim
$117K
largest single claim
56%
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 Penobscot, ME and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Penobscot 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.