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Do you live there? - 6 riskiest places to live: hurricane edition

06:18 PM
June 3, 2025

Do you live there?
6 riskiest places to live: hurricane edition

Tropical cyclone.Tropical cyclone - © WikiImages by Pixabay

Hurricanes can hit anywhere and anytime - even outside of hurricane season, because Mother Nature doesn't have to follow our calendar. More than 300 hurricanes have hit the U.S. coastline, from Texas to Maine, since 1851. Here are the top 6 riskiest coastal places to live when it comes to hurricanes based on FEMA's national risk index.

Did you know?

FEMA calucates their risk index using this formula:

(Expected Annual Loss) x (Social Vulnerability) / Community Resilience = Risk Index

The lower the number, the less risk, with 100 being the highest.

Learn more about this risk calcuation here!

Florida

According to NOAA, 40 percent of all hurricanes hit Florida. Eleven counties have a risk score of at least 99.2, with Miami-Dade County topping the list with a risk score of 100. Broward and Palm Beach counties are right behind it with a risk score of 99.9.

Each of these 11 counties shares a commonality: higher expected annual loss ratings and lower community resilience. This means that populations in these counties could have very expensive damages, and they are not as prepared as they could be for natural disasters, making their risk score even higher.

Texas

Texas holds a county with a hurricane risk score of 100: Harris County, home of Houston. While Florida also has Miami-Dade County with the same risk score, it has many more counties with a score above 99, as opposed to Texas' two counties: Harris and Fort Bend.

Interestingly, these two counties are not along the immediate coast, but their geography, expensive damage estimation and lower community resilience make their risk that much higher should a hurricane come through.

South Carolina

Beaufort, Charleston and Horry counties in South Carolina are all scoring at least 99.1 (Beaufort) to 99.6 (Charleston and Horry) on the hurricane risk index. If just these three counties were hit by a hurricane, a total of $836 million in damages has been estimated.

Although these counties in South Carolina received a relatively high to very high community resilience rating, their expected annual loss and moderate social vulnerability are what drives up the risk rating.

Georgia

Not too far down the East Coast, Chatham County (Savannah), Georgia, holds a hurricane risk rating of 99.5 based on estimated annual loss and social vulnerability. While residents here have a very high resilience rating and a good social vulnerability rating, the anticipated damage costs drive up the risk. Not to mention the county's proximity to the open Atlantic.

North Carolina

New Hanover County (Wilmington), N.C., located on the southeast coast, has a hurricane risk rating of 99.4. Seeing on average about 0.4 events per year, its expected annual loss of $247 million drives up the risk rating.

Alabama

And finally, Mobile County (Mobile), Alabama, is our final riskiest place to live when it comes to hurricane impacts. Each parameter, estimated annual loss, social vulnerability and community resilience, contributed almost equally to the hurricane risk rating of 99.4. Mobile County comes just under New Hanover County in N.C., with seeing 0.3 events per year on average.

Becca Parker
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