Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 1.7 out of 100, higher than about 1% of US counties, with landslides, avalanches and volcanic activity scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $1.9 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 1 federal disaster declaration that included Ketchikan Gateway Borough since 2024, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4846-AK (Landslides, declared 13 November 2024). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has no tornado on record touching Ketchikan Gateway Borough from 1950 to 2025.
Live weather alerts for Alaska All official warnings Latest FEMA declarations
Population 13,937 Buildings worth $4.2 billion Area 6,720 sq mi Risk rank in Alaska 26 of 30 FIPS 02130
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Landslide | Relatively Low | 87.0 | $42,226 | about 1 a year | — |
| Avalanche | Relatively Moderate | 80.4 | $456,669 | about once every 30 years | 1 |
| Volcanic activity | Very Low | 80.1 | $652 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | 3 |
| Winter weather | Relatively Low | 53.1 | $77,695 | about 9.2 a year | 130 |
| Tsunami | Very Low | 36.9 | $431,701 | about once every 3.3 years | 67 |
| Earthquake | Very Low | 31.2 | $94,395 | about once every 144 years | — |
| Coastal flooding | Very Low | 26.0 | $2,508 | about once every 83 years | — |
| Ice storm | Very Low | 19.4 | $17,205 | about once every 67 years | 0 |
| Wildfire | Very Low | 10.9 | $3,764 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Inland flooding | Very Low | 4.5 | $722,478 | about once every 100 years | 0 |
| Lightning | Very Low | 4.4 | $15,656 | about 8 a year | 18,392 strikes |
| Tornado | Very Low | 0.2 | — | rarer than once in 1,000 years | 0 |
| Cold wave | No Rating | 0.0 | — | — | 0 |
| Drought | No Rating | 0.0 | — | about 5.8 a year | 147 |
| Hail | No Rating | 0.0 | — | — | 0 |
| Strong wind | No Rating | 0.0 | — | — | 0 |
| Heat wave | Insufficient Data | — | — | — | — |
| Hurricane | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
Score: FEMA's percentile among US counties that face the hazard (higher = more risk). Expected loss: FEMA's modelled average yearly loss to buildings, people (as a statistical value) and crops. How often: FEMA's annualised frequency of the hazard in the county; for some hazards it counts event-days, so it is a rough guide, not a forecast. "Not Applicable" means FEMA does not model that hazard here.
Federal disaster declarations 1
Most common: Mud/Landslide 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 2020s | 1 | Mud/Landslide |
The last 1
Widest declarations that included Ketchikan Gateway Borough
- Landslides (2024, DR-4846-AK): 1 Alaska counties designated.
Not counted above: 2 COVID-19 ("Biological") declarations — in 2020 every US county was included. Alaska also had 24 statewide declarations with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 0
No tornado in NOAA's Storm Prediction Center record touched Ketchikan Gateway Borough between 1950 and 2025. That does not mean one cannot happen.
How Ketchikan Gateway Borough compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ketchikan Gateway Borough (this page) | — | Very Low | 1.7 | Landslide |
| Wrangell City and Borough | 105 km | Very Low | 0.1 | Landslide |
| Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area | 134 km | Very Low | 1.0 | Landslide |
| Petersburg Borough | 209 km | Very Low | 15.4 | Landslide |
| Sitka City and Borough | 325 km | Very Low | 23.8 | Landslide |
| Juneau City and Borough | 372 km | Very Low | 11.5 | Landslide |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Alaska, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Relatively Low 28.1 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Relatively High 68.6 |
| Community risk factor | 0.96 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $1.9 million |
FEMA scales expected losses up where social vulnerability is high (people who may find it harder to prepare, evacuate or recover) and down where community resilience is high. A factor above 1 raises the risk score. For social vulnerability a high rating is worse; for resilience a high rating is better.
Prepare for Ketchikan Gateway Borough's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Alaska · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Landslide: Landslides recorded
- Avalanche: Official warnings now
- Volcanic activity: US volcano alerts
- Your property's flood zone: FEMA Flood Map Service Center ↗ — this page cannot tell you that.
- Official preparedness guidance: Ready.gov ↗ and your county emergency management office.
What this page shows, and what it misses
FEMA's National Risk Index rates a whole county against every other US county; it is a planning-level estimate for nationwide comparison, not a flood-zone map and not a substitute for a local risk assessment or the risk to one home. Declarations are presidential disaster, emergency and fire management declarations that named this county; state declarations and SBA or USDA designations are not included. Tornadoes are counted when the county is one of up to four listed on the track; 670 tornadoes that crossed a state line carry no county list in NOAA's file and are left out.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Risk Index Dataset: National Risk Index Counties - v1.20.0 (December 2025). Retrieved from https://services.arcgis.com/XG15cJAlne2vxtgt/ArcGIS/rest/services/National_Risk_Index_Counties/FeatureServer/0/query on November 2, 2026, 1:20 PM EST. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Risk Index dataset API or downloadable datasets but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), OpenFEMA Dataset: Disaster Declarations Summaries - v2, retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/api/open/v2/DisasterDeclarationsSummaries on November 2, 2026, 1:21 PM EST. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).
Tornado records: NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center, Severe Weather Database, tornadoes 1950–2025 (https://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/data/1950-2025_actual_tornadoes.csv, downloaded 2 November 2026). Public domain; not endorsed by NOAA. Compiled by Global Incident Tracker.
Questions about Ketchikan Gateway Borough
What natural disasters is Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska most at risk from?
Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 1.7 out of 100, higher than about 1% of US counties, with landslides, avalanches and volcanic activity scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $1.9 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Ketchikan Gateway Borough had?
OpenFEMA lists 1 federal disaster declaration that included Ketchikan Gateway Borough since 2024, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4846-AK (Landslides, declared 13 November 2024). Another 24 Alaska declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Ketchikan Gateway Borough?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has no tornado on record touching Ketchikan Gateway Borough from 1950 to 2025.
Is the National Risk Index a flood zone map?
No. The National Risk Index is a planning-level estimate for a whole county, built for nationwide comparison. It does not tell you the flood zone or the risk of a single property: for that, look up the address on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center (msc.fema.gov) and ask your local floodplain manager.