Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Lancaster, SC

South Carolina · pop. 95,804 · FIPS 45057

Relatively Low
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Ice Storm
dominant hazard
$40M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the lowest nationally

national median $15M/yr Lancaster $40M

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 79.42/100
national median ~50 higher than 79% of counties
Social vulnerabilityRelatively Moderate 42.05/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (42nd percentile)
Community resilienceRelatively Moderate 52.48/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (52nd percentile)

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Lancaster

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 34 flood-insurance claims totaling $514K in Lancaster since 1987. The costliest year was 2024 ($143K paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1987: $0 paid 1989: $9,947 paid 1997: $11,717 paid 2006: $56,284 paid 2007: $0 paid 2009: $33,727 paid 2012: $12,988 paid 2013: $10,217 paid 2015: $35,970 paid 2017: $0 paid 2018: $32,241 paid 2019: $79,760 paid 2020: $83,059 paid 2023: $5,039 paid 2024: $142,749 paid 2024 · $143K 1987 2024
$514K
total paid
$15,109
average claim
$66K
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 Lancaster, SC and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Lancaster 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.