Risk-assessment baseline packet (county-level sections from Bennington County). Vermont town 5000385675, Bennington County. Release 2026-10, data as of 2026-09-28.
What the packet contains
Sections in FEMA checklist order. Each heading names the review item its tables support; whether the item is satisfied is decided by the plan and its reviewers. Full tables are in the downloads above.
Supports B1-a Hazards
Inherited from Bennington County, county-level (county FIPS 50003); scope: whole section.
15 of the 18 National Risk Index hazards apply here; omission evidence is shown only where NRI rates a hazard "Not Applicable", no federal declaration names it and Storm Events has no record of it since 1996.
Highest expected annual loss (NRI, modeled): Inland Flooding, Cold Wave and Hurricane.
Also check locally (not covered by NRI): dam failure (incl. upstream dams), levee failure, flash flood as its own subtype, ice jams, debris flows, erosion (riverine and coastal), land subsidence and sinkholes and expansive soils.
Check your state hazard mitigation plan's hazard list for this county; explain any hazard you drop.
Supports B1-b Location
Inherited from Bennington County, county-level (county FIPS 50003); scope: whole section.
- Avalanche, Coastal Flooding, Earthquake, Hurricane, Landslide, Tornado, Tsunami, Volcanic Activity and Wildfire: Census tract rating counts from the National Risk Index tract table (see B1-f). Tract maps and place names are not in this packet.
- Cold Wave, Drought, Hail, Heat Wave, Ice Storm, Lightning, Strong Wind and Winter Weather: Affects the whole planning area; national data do not distinguish locations within the county. Confirm locally.
- Inland Flooding: The FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) is the required location source for flooding. See the FEMA Flood Map Service Center (https://msc.fema.gov) for this county.
Supports B1-c Extent
Inherited from Bennington County, county-level (county FIPS 50003); scope: whole section.
Storm Events records for 15 of 20 hazard groups, with the scale, observed range and worst recorded event for each; the others say local data required.
- Hail: 3.25 in hail, 2011-06-01
- Thunderstorm Wind: 87 kt (100 mph) estimated gust, Thunderstorm Wind, 2017-07-01
- Tornado: F2 tornado, 1969-05-29, 0.5 mi path length (records before 1996 may include the whole path; rating and listing come from the county where the tornado began), 33 yd wide, $25,000 property; crops not recorded (1969 dollars), 1 direct injury
Supports B1-d Previous occurrences
Inherited from Bennington County, county-level (county FIPS 50003); scope: declarations, statewide block and Storm Events history.
21 federal declaration rows for this area (17 counted incidents), each with type, dates and county Public Assistance dollars.
New since the last plan (approved 2013-03-05): EM-3609-VT, DR-4720-VT, EM-3595-VT, DR-4621-VT, EM-3567-VT, DR-4532-VT, EM-3437-VT, DR-4445-VT and DR-4330-VT.
2 statewide declarations listed separately.
Hazards with no recorded events are stated as such (4 of 18).
Storm Events history: 784 records (notable ones in the PDF, all of them in the Excel file).
Supports B1-e Probability
Inherited from Bennington County, county-level (county FIPS 50003); scope: whole section.
FEMA annualized frequency (modeled) for each hazard, with a descriptor from a scale defined in the packet.
- Highly likely: Hail, Landslide, Lightning, Strong Wind and Winter Weather
- Likely: Cold Wave, Drought, Heat Wave, Ice Storm, Inland Flooding and Tornado
- Possible: Avalanche, Hurricane and Wildfire
Historical frequency by intensity band (tornado, hail, wind): 9 bands from Storm Events.
Supports B1-f Variation across the planning area
Range of census tract risk scores within the area for 18 hazards (12 tracts; rated tracts only).
1 member jurisdiction: plan clock, repeat-flood count, Public Assistance dollars and event records naming the place (starter, confirm locally).
Supports B2-a, B2-b Assets and impacts
Local data required
Inherited from Bennington County, county-level (county FIPS 50003); scope: NRI exposure and expected annual loss; since-plan figures use the town's own approval date.
County-level starter. The plan must describe impacts for each participant and its own assets.
Storm Events damage since 2013-03-05: $1,318,000 in county-coded records (125 records); $37,500 reported for the zone (258 zone records). Data through 2026-06-30; nominal dollars.
Checklist of what to gather locally: Critical facilities and lifelines per hazard; A problem statement per participant per hazard; Changes in development in hazard-prone areas since the last approval, or a statement of none (E1-a); Future assets.
- Vermont Flood Ready Atlas and ANR river corridors for town flood and erosion locations.
- ERAF Flood Hazard Summary gives E911 building counts in the SFHA per town.
- Vermont Dam Inventory for dams in and upstream of the town.
- VEM hazard mitigation planning resources and the 2023 Vermont State Hazard Mitigation Plan.
Supports B2-a Context
Inherited from Bennington County, county-level (county FIPS 50003); scope: whole section.
Population 37,345; building value $11,309,918,513 and agriculture value $22,597,593 (total, not at risk).
National Risk Index rating Relatively Low; social vulnerability Relatively Low; community resilience Relatively High.
Supports B2-c Repetitive loss
Repetitive-loss properties (Bennington County, county-level), FMA definition (44 CFR 77.2): 0 repetitive loss, 0 severe repetitive loss. NFIP insurance definition: 6 and 0.
Mitigated 0; insured 2; NFIP data as of 2026-08-02. Counts by occupancy and for each member community are in the packet.