Automated baseline from FEMA and NOAA data, release 2026-10.
Pierce County, WA
Risk-assessment baseline packet. County FIPS 53053. Release 2026-10, data as of 2026-09-30.
Summary
Plan status as of 2026-09-30: Plan 111539 approved 2026-08-18, pending adoption here; not yet eligible. Plan: Pierce County Hazard Mitigation Plan (2025) (FEMA plan 111539), pending adoption here, approved 2026-08-18 by FEMA; not yet adopted here.
Update: FEMA tracker shows a plan approvable pending adoption.
Highest expected annual loss (FEMA National Risk Index, modeled total; see B1-a): Earthquake ($363,823,475 a year), Inland Flooding ($121,581,168) and Heat Wave ($13,504,948).
The packet's tables are organized by the items of FEMA's Local Mitigation Plan Review Tool, Element B (B1-a to B2-c); the summaries below follow the same order.
17 of the 18 National Risk Index hazards apply here.
Highest expected annual loss (NRI, modeled): Earthquake, Inland Flooding and Heat Wave.
Not covered by NRI (local data needed): 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; expansive soils.
The state hazard mitigation plan also lists hazards for this county; FEMA asks the plan to explain any hazard it leaves out.
Supports FEMA checklist item B1-b Hazard location
Avalanche, Earthquake, Hurricane, Landslide, Tornado, Tsunami, Volcanic Activity and Wildfire: Varies within the county: the census tracts with the highest National Risk Index rating for this hazard are listed. FEMA's Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT) maps the National Risk Index for every tract (https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/practitioners/resilience-analysis-and-planning-tool).
Coastal Flooding and 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.
Cold Wave, Drought, Hail, Heat Wave, Ice Storm, Lightning, Strong Wind and Winter Weather: Affects the whole county; national data give no location within it.
Supports FEMA checklist item B1-c Hazard extent
Storm Events records for 15 of the 20 NOAA event-type groups mapped to the 18 hazards, with the scale, observed range and worst recorded event for each; the others say which local data are needed.
Federal declarations for this area: 26 declarations covering 22 separate hazard incidents counted in this packet; each with type, dates and county Public Assistance dollars.
Plan 111539 was approved by FEMA on 2026-08-18 but is not yet adopted here, so no since-plan counts are given.
4 statewide declarations listed separately.
Hazards with no Storm Events record and no federal declaration are stated as such (2 of 18).
Storm Events history: 183 records (notable ones in the PDF, all of them in the Excel file).
Supports FEMA checklist item B1-e Probability of future events
FEMA annualized frequency (modeled) for each hazard, with a descriptor from a scale defined in the packet.
Highly likely: Coastal Flooding, Landslide and Lightning
Historical frequency by intensity band (tornado, hail, wind): 9 bands from Storm Events.
Supports FEMA checklist item B1-f Hazards that vary across jurisdictions
Range of census tract risk scores within the area for 18 hazards (193 tracts; rated tracts only).
5 jurisdictions: plan clock, repeat-flood count, Public Assistance dollars and event records naming the place (starting figures from federal data).
County Public Assistance in B1-d also includes applicants filed under the county that are not jurisdictions in this plan (for example state agencies, special districts and nonprofits), so the jurisdiction rows add up to less.
Supports FEMA checklist items B2-a and B2-b Vulnerability and potential impacts
The packet's table gives county-level starting figures; the plan describes impacts for each jurisdiction and its own assets.
Plan 111539 was approved by FEMA on 2026-08-18 but is not yet adopted here, so no since-plan counts are given.
Local data needed
To gather:
Critical facilities and lifelines per hazard
A problem statement per jurisdiction per hazard
Changes in development in hazard-prone areas since the last approval, or a statement of none (E1-a)
Population 920,483; building value $180,400,904,806 and agriculture value $83,529,878 (total, not at risk).
National Risk Index rating Relatively High; social vulnerability Very Low; community resilience Relatively High.
Supports FEMA checklist item B2-c Repetitive loss properties
Repetitive-loss properties, FMA definition (44 CFR 77.2): 14 repetitive loss, 33 severe repetitive loss. NFIP insurance definition: 97 and 9.
Mitigated 27; insured 35; NFIP data as of 2026-08-02. Counts by occupancy group and for each jurisdiction are in the packet.
Releases
2026-10 (this release)
Each release is dated; this is release 2026-10. It was first published 2026-09-30; its files do not change. Later releases will be listed here with what changed between them. All releases.
Cite this
Hazard Plain (2026). Pierce County, WA: risk-assessment baseline packet, release 2026-10 (data as of 2026-09-30; County FIPS 53053). Automated baseline. https://hazardplain.org/wa/53053/ Built from FEMA OpenFEMA, the FEMA National Risk Index and NOAA NCEI Storm Events; source versions in the packet's Sources list.