Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Polk, TX

Texas · pop. 49,569 · FIPS 48373

Relatively Low
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Lightning
dominant hazard
$24M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the lowest nationally

national median $15M/yr Polk $24M

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 75.57/100
national median ~50 higher than 76% of counties
Social vulnerabilityVery High 80.63/100
national median ~50 higher than 81% of counties
Community resilienceVery Low 16.41/100
national median ~50 among the lowest nationally

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Polk

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 346 flood-insurance claims totaling $10.1M in Polk since 1979. The costliest year was 2024 ($4.0M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1979: $44,682 paid 1981: $17,943 paid 1989: $135,457 paid 1990: $69,236 paid 1991: $35,866 paid 1992: $45,371 paid 1993: $8,778 paid 1994: $643,083 paid 1995: $10,634 paid 1996: $12,600 paid 1997: $9,715 paid 1998: $114,933 paid 1999: $416,560 paid 2000: $0 paid 2001: $173,841 paid 2002: $12,873 paid 2004: $776,525 paid 2005: $290 paid 2006: $561,757 paid 2007: $0 paid 2008: $119,643 paid 2009: $54,672 paid 2011: $0 paid 2012: $106,385 paid 2013: $30,940 paid 2014: $3,484 paid 2015: $348,638 paid 2016: $429,262 paid 2017: $1,403,274 paid 2018: $107,362 paid 2019: $80,573 paid 2021: $179,946 paid 2024: $4,012,105 paid 2025: $89,873 paid 2024 · $4.0M 1979 2025
$10.1M
total paid
$29,064
average claim
$265K
largest single claim
55%
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 Polk, TX and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Polk 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.