Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Waldo, ME

Maine · pop. 39,586 · FIPS 23027

Very Low
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Winter Weather
dominant hazard
$13M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the lowest nationally

national median $15M/yr Waldo $13M

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 indexVery Low 40.62/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (41st percentile)
Social vulnerabilityRelatively Low 32.03/100
national median ~50 lower than most counties (32nd percentile)
Community resilienceVery High 82.51/100
national median ~50 higher than 83% of counties

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Waldo

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 73 flood-insurance claims totaling $1.5M in Waldo since 1978. The costliest year was 2024 ($617K paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $14,549 paid 1979: $0 paid 1980: $0 paid 1982: $1,703 paid 1983: $0 paid 1986: $500 paid 1987: $37,219 paid 1992: $0 paid 1993: $2,937 paid 1996: $8,365 paid 1997: $141,207 paid 1998: $7,048 paid 1999: $0 paid 2001: $0 paid 2003: $5,988 paid 2005: $43,935 paid 2007: $106,288 paid 2009: $112,217 paid 2010: $7,035 paid 2011: $0 paid 2012: $1,360 paid 2016: $11,926 paid 2017: $21,454 paid 2018: $55,841 paid 2019: $196,977 paid 2020: $12,012 paid 2022: $62,412 paid 2023: $42,593 paid 2024: $617,348 paid 2024 · $617K 1978 2024
$1.5M
total paid
$20,697
average claim
$208K
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 Waldo, ME and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Waldo 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.