Property Atlas

County hazard profile

Whatcom, WA

Washington · pop. 226,681 · FIPS 53073

Relatively Moderate
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Avalanche
dominant hazard
$111M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

lower than most counties (34th percentile)

national median $15M/yr Whatcom $111M

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 90.97/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Social vulnerabilityRelatively Low 21.53/100
national median ~50 among the lowest nationally
Community resilienceRelatively High 78.66/100
national median ~50 higher than 79% of counties

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in Whatcom

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 1,205 flood-insurance claims totaling $52.3M in Whatcom since 1979. The costliest year was 2021 ($22.4M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1979: $96,287 paid 1980: $50,341 paid 1981: $282 paid 1982: $37,961 paid 1983: $389,538 paid 1984: $60,364 paid 1985: $0 paid 1986: $25,632 paid 1987: $2,156 paid 1989: $260,885 paid 1990: $2,016,679 paid 1991: $30,000 paid 1992: $0 paid 1993: $8,194 paid 1994: $0 paid 1995: $272,693 paid 1996: $107,277 paid 1997: $102,345 paid 1998: $5,556 paid 1999: $2,443 paid 2000: $224,297 paid 2001: $210,206 paid 2002: $18,889 paid 2003: $121,304 paid 2004: $317,277 paid 2005: $2,742 paid 2006: $720,033 paid 2007: $5,665 paid 2008: $1,326 paid 2009: $1,631,923 paid 2010: $112,265 paid 2011: $0 paid 2012: $190,412 paid 2014: $0 paid 2015: $7,051 paid 2016: $25,456 paid 2017: $0 paid 2018: $43,627 paid 2020: $394,805 paid 2021: $22,383,141 paid 2022: $925,420 paid 2023: $0 paid 2024: $556,376 paid 2025: $20,887,854 paid 2026: $14,405 paid 2021 · $22.4M 1979 2026
$52.3M
total paid
$43,372
average claim
$700K
largest single claim
81%
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 Whatcom, WA and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether Whatcom 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.