Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Portsmouth, VA

Virginia · pop. 97,881 · FIPS 51740

Relatively Low
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Hurricane
dominant hazard
$18M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the lowest nationally

national median $15M/yr Portsmouth $18M

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 53.98/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (54th percentile)
Social vulnerabilityRelatively Low 37.44/100
national median ~50 lower than most counties (37th percentile)
Community resilienceRelatively High 76.15/100
national median ~50 higher than 76% of counties

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Portsmouth

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 1,737 flood-insurance claims totaling $20.0M in Portsmouth since 1978. The costliest year was 2009 ($5.5M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $2,202 paid 1979: $0 paid 1980: $191 paid 1981: $0 paid 1982: $20,919 paid 1985: $4,167 paid 1986: $514 paid 1987: $11,124 paid 1988: $6,195 paid 1989: $0 paid 1990: $173,448 paid 1991: $9,266 paid 1992: $11,480 paid 1993: $0 paid 1994: $26,219 paid 1995: $0 paid 1996: $0 paid 1997: $10,976 paid 1998: $148,745 paid 1999: $1,019,574 paid 2001: $2,413 paid 2002: $0 paid 2003: $3,393,458 paid 2004: $86,211 paid 2005: $322,698 paid 2006: $502,634 paid 2007: $9,557 paid 2008: $7,906 paid 2009: $5,515,658 paid 2010: $51,764 paid 2011: $1,540,415 paid 2012: $322,076 paid 2013: $19,750 paid 2014: $1,180,908 paid 2015: $39,558 paid 2016: $5,265,738 paid 2017: $6,687 paid 2018: $170,933 paid 2019: $11,275 paid 2020: $51,531 paid 2021: $7,170 paid 2022: $12,143 paid 2023: $35,229 paid 2024: $18,806 paid 2025: $15,383 paid 2009 · $5.5M 1978 2025
$20.0M
total paid
$11,534
average claim
$353K
largest single claim
74%
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 Portsmouth, VA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Portsmouth 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.