Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Roanoke, VA

Virginia · pop. 99,966 · FIPS 51770

Relatively Low
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Strong Wind
dominant hazard
$25M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the lowest nationally

national median $15M/yr Roanoke $25M

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 72.87/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (73rd percentile)
Social vulnerabilityRelatively High 72.26/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (72nd percentile)
Community resilienceRelatively Moderate 50.95/100
national median ~50 near the national middle (51st percentile)

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Roanoke

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 1,184 flood-insurance claims totaling $20.2M in Roanoke since 1978. The costliest year was 1985 ($7.6M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $914,347 paid 1979: $80,083 paid 1980: $2,186 paid 1981: $21,013 paid 1982: $15,238 paid 1983: $39,442 paid 1984: $14,292 paid 1985: $7,611,586 paid 1986: $5,050 paid 1987: $329,657 paid 1989: $274,906 paid 1990: $38 paid 1991: $588 paid 1992: $1,704,384 paid 1993: $107,878 paid 1994: $51,755 paid 1995: $72,390 paid 1996: $61,020 paid 1997: $4,670 paid 1998: $105,097 paid 1999: $103 paid 2000: $641,790 paid 2003: $1,408,417 paid 2004: $3,687,840 paid 2005: $265,008 paid 2006: $72,406 paid 2008: $23,487 paid 2009: $88,539 paid 2010: $5,203 paid 2011: $67,870 paid 2013: $1,181,393 paid 2014: $0 paid 2015: $43,157 paid 2016: $15,080 paid 2017: $0 paid 2018: $669,319 paid 2019: $7,388 paid 2020: $25,061 paid 2024: $0 paid 2025: $578,572 paid 1985 · $7.6M 1978 2025
$20.2M
total paid
$17,058
average claim
$816K
largest single claim
78%
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 Roanoke, VA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Roanoke 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.