FEMA Launches Full National Risk Index for Emergency Assessment and Planning

After a preliminary rollout, FEMA has unveiled its fully operational tool to help organizations and communities analyze their biggest risks to help them better prepare. FEMA’s U.S. National Risk Index was initially introduced in Nov. 2020 on a limited basis. Now it has launched the full application for users. It’s an online mapping resource that identifies communities most at risk to 18 natural hazards:

• Avalanche
• Coastal Flooding
• Cold Wave
• Drought
• Earthquake
• Hail
• Heat Wave
• Hurricane
• Ice Storm
• Landslide
• Lightning
• River Flooding
• Strong Wind
• Tornado
• Tsunami
• Volcanic Activity
• Wildfire, and
• Winter Weather.

Users can discover hazard risk metrics, data about expected annual losses, social vulnerability, and their community’s resilience levels, via interactive web maps and other visualization tools. It’s expected provide ongoing assistance in updating emergency operations and hazard mitigation plans, identifying areas in need of better risk assessments, encouraging local risk communications, and much more.