Property Atlas

County hazard profile

McDowell, WV

West Virginia · pop. 19,078 · FIPS 54047

Relatively Low
FEMA risk rating · RATING
Landslide
dominant hazard
$21M
modeled expected annual loss/yr

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

among the lowest nationally

national median $15M/yr McDowell $21M

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 76.65/100
national median ~50 higher than 77% of counties
Social vulnerabilityVery High 96.28/100
national median ~50 among the highest nationally
Community resilienceVery Low 4.13/100
national median ~50 among the lowest nationally

Recorded · NFIP flood claims RECORDED

Realized flood losses in McDowell

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid 1,049 flood-insurance claims totaling $9.7M in McDowell since 1978. The costliest year was 2002 ($3.8M paid).

Flood-insurance dollars paid by year of loss

1978: $180,895 paid 1979: $34,890 paid 1980: $17,510 paid 1981: $40,723 paid 1982: $0 paid 1983: $200 paid 1984: $420,304 paid 1986: $0 paid 1987: $17,584 paid 1989: $0 paid 1990: $0 paid 1991: $0 paid 1992: $0 paid 1994: $7,440 paid 1995: $3,790 paid 1996: $112,022 paid 1997: $23,284 paid 1998: $7,428 paid 2000: $0 paid 2001: $1,640,264 paid 2002: $3,776,116 paid 2003: $75,770 paid 2004: $20,882 paid 2005: $17,220 paid 2006: $377 paid 2007: $85,164 paid 2008: $4,234 paid 2009: $241,888 paid 2010: $347,182 paid 2012: $0 paid 2014: $3,652 paid 2015: $12,693 paid 2019: $0 paid 2020: $5,344 paid 2022: $27,176 paid 2023: $597 paid 2024: $0 paid 2025: $2,546,788 paid 2002 · $3.8M 1978 2025
$9.7M
total paid
$9,220
average claim
$283K
largest single claim
41%
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 McDowell, WV and where it ranks among U.S. counties. It is not a verdict on whether McDowell 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.