Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Erie, PA

Pennsylvania · pop. 270,695 · FIPS 42049

Relatively Moderate
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Lightning
dominant hazard
$48M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the lowest nationally

national median $15M/yr Erie $48M

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 84.1/100
national median ~50 higher than 84% of counties
Social vulnerabilityRelatively Moderate 53.44/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (53rd percentile)
Community resilienceVery High 84.92/100
national median ~50 higher than 85% of counties

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Erie

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 511 flood-insurance claims totaling $6.0M in Erie since 1978. The costliest year was 1985 ($611K paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $110,195 paid 1979: $178,768 paid 1980: $29,475 paid 1981: $49,639 paid 1982: $50,986 paid 1983: $18,652 paid 1984: $16,632 paid 1985: $611,006 paid 1986: $38,877 paid 1987: $6,477 paid 1988: $281,043 paid 1989: $337,708 paid 1990: $213,451 paid 1991: $35,200 paid 1992: $49,603 paid 1993: $192,472 paid 1994: $162,486 paid 1995: $18,892 paid 1996: $422,617 paid 1997: $6,004 paid 1998: $3,121 paid 1999: $0 paid 2000: $141,851 paid 2002: $76,929 paid 2003: $4,098 paid 2004: $605,248 paid 2005: $12,454 paid 2008: $22,655 paid 2009: $231,236 paid 2011: $182,784 paid 2012: $0 paid 2013: $220,944 paid 2014: $0 paid 2016: $39,514 paid 2017: $318,737 paid 2018: $35,534 paid 2019: $157,229 paid 2020: $527,102 paid 2021: $182,543 paid 2022: $370,225 paid 2023: $4,486 paid 2025: $5,823 paid 1985 · $611K 1978 2025
$6.0M
total paid
$11,688
average claim
$282K
largest single claim
51%
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 Erie, PA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Erie 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.