Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Beaufort, SC

South Carolina · pop. 186,606 · FIPS 45013

Relatively High
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Hurricane
dominant hazard
$256M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

higher than 79% of counties

national median $15M/yr Beaufort $256M

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 High 97.11/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityRelatively Moderate 44.59/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (45th percentile)
Community resilienceRelatively High 66.73/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (67th percentile)

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Beaufort

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 4,965 flood-insurance claims totaling $80.8M in Beaufort since 1979. The costliest year was 2016 ($55.5M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1979: $206,176 paid 1980: $619 paid 1981: $0 paid 1982: $2,058 paid 1983: $2,129 paid 1984: $9,209 paid 1985: $7,851 paid 1986: $13,177 paid 1987: $46,984 paid 1988: $206,403 paid 1989: $411,790 paid 1990: $0 paid 1991: $130,736 paid 1992: $79,050 paid 1993: $1,051 paid 1994: $3,151,692 paid 1995: $228,839 paid 1996: $11,779 paid 1997: $13,439 paid 1998: $252,141 paid 1999: $90,082 paid 2000: $110,110 paid 2001: $268,102 paid 2002: $205,992 paid 2003: $9,528 paid 2004: $14,825 paid 2005: $165,139 paid 2006: $1,611 paid 2007: $120,583 paid 2008: $702,526 paid 2009: $125,895 paid 2010: $407,945 paid 2011: $316,736 paid 2012: $31,628 paid 2013: $0 paid 2014: $93,563 paid 2015: $678,560 paid 2016: $55,463,869 paid 2017: $14,185,188 paid 2018: $61,026 paid 2019: $364,026 paid 2020: $125,908 paid 2021: $713,990 paid 2022: $47,058 paid 2023: $129,737 paid 2024: $969,569 paid 2025: $640,738 paid 2016 · $55.5M 1979 2025
$80.8M
total paid
$16,278
average claim
$610K
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 Beaufort, SC and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Beaufort 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.