Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Wharton, TX

Texas · pop. 41,544 · FIPS 48481

Relatively Moderate
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Hurricane
dominant hazard
$35M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the lowest nationally

national median $15M/yr Wharton $35M

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 83.02/100
national median ~50 higher than 83% of counties
Social vulnerabilityVery High 83.49/100
national median ~50 higher than 83% of counties
Community resilienceRelatively Moderate 41/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (41st percentile)

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Wharton

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 1,165 flood-insurance claims totaling $52.0M in Wharton since 1979. The costliest year was 2017 ($36.6M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1979: $24,216 paid 1980: $13,865 paid 1982: $1,607 paid 1983: $55,973 paid 1984: $1,640 paid 1987: $2,589 paid 1990: $848 paid 1991: $3,604 paid 1992: $10,442 paid 1994: $411,204 paid 1995: $0 paid 1997: $49,573 paid 1998: $1,559,961 paid 2000: $5,682 paid 2001: $143,410 paid 2002: $731,562 paid 2003: $33,742 paid 2004: $5,514,702 paid 2005: $13,490 paid 2007: $1,147 paid 2008: $25,702 paid 2009: $16,495 paid 2010: $13,951 paid 2013: $6,567 paid 2014: $10,881 paid 2015: $1,165,527 paid 2016: $2,545,849 paid 2017: $36,593,895 paid 2018: $0 paid 2019: $2,910,169 paid 2021: $45,137 paid 2022: $14,429 paid 2023: $8,101 paid 2024: $19,257 paid 2017 · $36.6M 1979 2024
$52.0M
total paid
$44,597
average claim
$484K
largest single claim
77%
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 Wharton, TX and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Wharton 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.