Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Luzerne, PA

Pennsylvania · pop. 325,461 · FIPS 42079

Relatively Moderate
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Winter Weather
dominant hazard
$88M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

lower than most counties (27th percentile)

national median $15M/yr Luzerne $88M

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 91.63/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityRelatively High 67.78/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (68th percentile)
Community resilienceRelatively High 78.09/100
national median ~50 higher than 78% of counties

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Luzerne

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 4,146 flood-insurance claims totaling $93.6M in Luzerne since 1978. The costliest year was 2011 ($63.0M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $88,708 paid 1979: $706,916 paid 1980: $27,376 paid 1981: $37,716 paid 1982: $4,028 paid 1983: $278,222 paid 1984: $71,357 paid 1985: $33,270 paid 1986: $26,774 paid 1987: $26,856 paid 1988: $0 paid 1989: $3,443 paid 1990: $4,889 paid 1992: $0 paid 1993: $281,615 paid 1994: $9,298 paid 1995: $0 paid 1996: $7,046,794 paid 1997: $0 paid 1998: $1,078 paid 1999: $39,851 paid 2000: $7,784 paid 2002: $205,794 paid 2003: $114,447 paid 2004: $9,651,326 paid 2005: $529,815 paid 2006: $8,508,346 paid 2007: $106,790 paid 2008: $28,112 paid 2009: $5,478 paid 2010: $0 paid 2011: $63,032,142 paid 2012: $0 paid 2013: $45,257 paid 2014: $0 paid 2016: $450,000 paid 2017: $519,236 paid 2018: $220,655 paid 2019: $37,503 paid 2020: $17,075 paid 2021: $573,041 paid 2022: $8,534 paid 2023: $510,374 paid 2024: $357,767 paid 2025: $6,443 paid 2011 · $63.0M 1978 2025
$93.6M
total paid
$22,582
average claim
$1.0M
largest single claim
49%
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 Luzerne, PA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Luzerne 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.