Some counties do not face just one type of natural disaster — they face multiple. A county on the Gulf Coast might contend with hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes. A California county might face earthquakes, wildfires, and landslides. These overlapping hazards create compound risk that is greater than the sum of its parts.
We identified counties facing two or more high-risk hazard types (score of 70+), then ranked them by the number of high hazards and their composite risk score.
Counties with Multiple High-Risk Hazards
The following counties face two or more hazard types scoring 70 or above on the FEMA National Risk Index:
| Rank | County | State | High Hazards | Composite Risk | Flood | Wildfire | Tornado | Earthquake | Hurricane |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harris County, Texas | TX | 5 | 99.9364 | 99.9682 | 85.4326 | 100 | 92.1438 | 100 |
| 2 | Dallas County, Texas | TX | 5 | 99.6501 | 99.5547 | 80.2799 | 99.841 | 91.285 | 73.5503 |
| 3 | Tarrant County, Texas | TX | 5 | 99.1412 | 99.1412 | 91.4758 | 99.8728 | 88.2634 | 72.257 |
| 4 | Hidalgo County, Texas | TX | 5 | 99.014 | 96.4377 | 83.8104 | 95.9924 | 79.0076 | 99.4994 |
| 5 | Charleston County, South Carolina | SC | 5 | 98.6323 | 99.8 | 93.8613 | 71.0242 | 98.7913 | 99.6245 |
| 6 | Orange County, Florida | FL | 5 | 98.4415 | 98.4097 | 97.4237 | 99.1094 | 75.4135 | 98.0392 |
| 7 | Horry County, South Carolina | SC | 5 | 98.187 | 92.0165 | 89.8855 | 96.6921 | 95.9288 | 99.5828 |
| 8 | Mobile County, Alabama | AL | 5 | 98.028 | 95.8969 | 93.4796 | 94.5611 | 84.7646 | 99.4159 |
| 9 | Middlesex County, New Jersey | NJ | 5 | 97.7735 | 98.855 | 79.7074 | 94.4975 | 96.2468 | 92.6158 |
| 10 | Jefferson County, Alabama | AL | 5 | 97.6145 | 98.0916 | 79.0712 | 99.5547 | 96.056 | 76.5957 |
| 11 | Chatham County, Georgia | GA | 5 | 97.4237 | 96 | 92.3982 | 77.4491 | 94.4338 | 99.3742 |
| 12 | Suffolk County, New York | NY | 5 | 97.3282 | 98.6 | 73.3779 | 74.7455 | 95.8969 | 96.8294 |
| 13 | Duval County, Florida | FL | 5 | 97.201 | 97.5509 | 89.9173 | 91.5394 | 90.2036 | 97.6637 |
| 14 | Beaufort County, South Carolina | SC | 5 | 97.1056 | 94.2 | 90.299 | 81.9975 | 93.6069 | 99.4577 |
| 15 | Middlesex County, Massachusetts | MA | 5 | 96.9466 | 98.5051 | 72.7735 | 90.1081 | 96.0878 | 95.4526 |
| 16 | Pulaski County, Arkansas | AR | 5 | 96.7875 | 96.7557 | 71.8193 | 99.173 | 98.1552 | 71.7564 |
| 17 | Baldwin County, Alabama | AL | 5 | 96.7239 | 92.2074 | 90.7761 | 92.8435 | 72.3919 | 99.2491 |
| 18 | New Hanover County, North Carolina | NC | 5 | 96.1196 | 89.8855 | 82.9517 | 90.3626 | 81.0115 | 99.1239 |
| 19 | Brunswick County, North Carolina | NC | 5 | 95.7697 | 89.4 | 93.3524 | 86.9911 | 82.6972 | 99.0822 |
| 20 | Harrison County, Mississippi | MS | 5 | 95.6107 | 91.6 | 94.5293 | 95.9606 | 70.4517 | 98.5398 |
| 21 | Mercer County, New Jersey | NJ | 5 | 95.3562 | 97.1692 | 73.4415 | 81.902 | 94.0204 | 94.6183 |
| 22 | Berkeley County, South Carolina | SC | 5 | 94.8155 | 80.6616 | 89.8219 | 78.0852 | 97.7417 | 98.3312 |
| 23 | Dorchester County, South Carolina | SC | 5 | 93.7023 | 78.6578 | 79.0394 | 74.7774 | 97.9326 | 97.8723 |
| 24 | Burlington County, New Jersey | NJ | 5 | 93.6069 | 96.4059 | 92.2074 | 78.2443 | 92.0165 | 88.8194 |
| 25 | Camden County, New Jersey | NJ | 5 | 93.2252 | 95.6107 | 86.2595 | 84.8282 | 93.8295 | 88.5273 |
Methodology
Counties are evaluated on the number of individual hazard types (flood, wildfire, tornado, earthquake, hurricane) with a FEMA National Risk Index score of 70 or above. Counties with two or more high hazards are ranked first by hazard count, then by composite risk score. All data comes from the FEMA NRI (2020).
Data source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI). Risk scores use percentile-rank methodology on a 0-100 scale. All figures are relative rankings and do not represent absolute predictions of natural disaster occurrence.