Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Elk, PA

Pennsylvania · pop. 30,973 · FIPS 42047

Relatively Low
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Lightning
dominant hazard
$15M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the lowest nationally

national median $15M/yr Elk $15M

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 45.2/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (45th percentile)
Social vulnerabilityRelatively Low 29.64/100
national median ~50 lower than most counties (30th percentile)
Community resilienceVery High 88.49/100
national median ~50 higher than 88% of counties

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Elk

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 316 flood-insurance claims totaling $8.2M in Elk since 1978. The costliest year was 2014 ($4.1M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $3,352 paid 1979: $753 paid 1981: $34,063 paid 1982: $357 paid 1983: $0 paid 1984: $622 paid 1985: $11,824 paid 1989: $660,479 paid 1992: $1,132 paid 1994: $4,159 paid 1995: $1,583 paid 1996: $1,814,628 paid 2001: $0 paid 2003: $64,477 paid 2004: $178,258 paid 2006: $1,521 paid 2007: $0 paid 2008: $0 paid 2010: $701,256 paid 2013: $112,368 paid 2014: $4,088,797 paid 2015: $128,872 paid 2017: $4,157 paid 2018: $115,033 paid 2019: $171,348 paid 2021: $4,949 paid 2024: $88,621 paid 2014 · $4.1M 1978 2024
$8.2M
total paid
$25,926
average claim
$775K
largest single claim
81%
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 Elk, PA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Elk 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.