Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Washington, VA

Virginia · pop. 53,894 · FIPS 51191

Relatively Low
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Landslide
dominant hazard
$12M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the lowest nationally

national median $15M/yr Washington $12M

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 46.56/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (47th percentile)
Social vulnerabilityRelatively High 61.04/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (61st percentile)
Community resilienceRelatively Low 34.83/100
national median ~50 lower than most counties (35th percentile)

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Washington

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 80 flood-insurance claims totaling $1.7M in Washington since 1978. The costliest year was 2024 ($858K paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $392 paid 1980: $270 paid 1981: $0 paid 1982: $2,415 paid 1984: $12,890 paid 1994: $2,416 paid 1998: $120,216 paid 2002: $184,513 paid 2003: $133,894 paid 2006: $2,216 paid 2009: $1,148 paid 2015: $58,876 paid 2017: $0 paid 2018: $9,060 paid 2019: $47,002 paid 2020: $222,260 paid 2021: $0 paid 2023: $0 paid 2024: $857,840 paid 2025: $14,936 paid 2024 · $858K 1978 2025
$1.7M
total paid
$20,879
average claim
$260K
largest single claim
30%
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 Washington, VA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Washington 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.