Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 6.3 out of 100, higher than about 6% of US counties, with volcanic activity, earthquakes and avalanches scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $2.0 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 1 federal disaster declaration that included Lake and Peninsula Borough since 2000, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-1316-AK (Severe Winter Storms and Avalanches, declared 17 February 2000). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has no tornado on record touching Lake and Peninsula Borough from 1950 to 2025.
Live weather alerts for Alaska All official warnings Latest FEMA declarations
Population 1,472 Buildings worth $671 million Area 34,208 sq mi Risk rank in Alaska 23 of 30 FIPS 02164
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volcanic activity | Relatively Low | 90.2 | $9,141 | about once every 18 years | 32 |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | 79.7 | $919,487 | about once every 6.6 years | — |
| Avalanche | Relatively Low | 76.2 | $11,736 | about once every 15 years | 2 |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | 66.7 | $2,515 | about 1.8 a year | — |
| Tsunami | Relatively Low | 50.8 | $720,558 | about once every 3.2 years | 67 |
| Wildfire | Very Low | 45.5 | $20,504 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Cold wave | Relatively Low | 34.2 | $296,060 | about 2.3 a year | 35 |
| Winter weather | Relatively Low | 30.5 | $17,552 | about 12 a year | 182 |
| Ice storm | Very Low | 1.0 | $283 | about once every 67 years | 0 |
| Tornado | Very Low | 0.8 | $3 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | 0 |
| Hail | Very Low | 0.6 | — | rarer than once in 1,000 years | 0 |
| Lightning | Very Low | 0.5 | $1,308 | about 8.5 a year | 7,332 strikes |
| Inland flooding | Very Low | 0.2 | — | about once every 100 years | 0 |
| Coastal flooding | No Rating | 0.0 | — | about once every 100 years | — |
| Drought | 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: Severe Storm 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 1 | Severe Storm |
The last 1
Widest declarations that included Lake and Peninsula Borough
- Severe Winter Storms and Avalanches (2000, DR-1316-AK): 15 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 Lake and Peninsula Borough between 1950 and 2025. That does not mean one cannot happen.
How Lake and Peninsula Borough compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lake and Peninsula Borough (this page) | — | Very Low | 6.3 | Volcanic activity |
| Bristol Bay Borough | 31 km | Very Low | 1.2 | Earthquake |
| Dillingham Census Area | 169 km | Very Low | 35.7 | Cold wave |
| Kodiak Island Borough | 179 km | Relatively Low | 65.1 | Landslide |
| Kenai Peninsula Borough | 312 km | Relatively Moderate | 93.0 | Avalanche |
| Bethel Census Area | 317 km | Relatively Low | 44.3 | Cold wave |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Alaska, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Very High 96.7 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Very Low 11.7 |
| Community risk factor | 1.80 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $2.0 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 Lake and Peninsula Borough's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Alaska · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Volcanic activity: US volcano alerts
- Earthquake: Earthquakes today · Earthquake safety guide
- Avalanche: Official warnings now
- 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 Lake and Peninsula Borough
What natural disasters is Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska most at risk from?
Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 6.3 out of 100, higher than about 6% of US counties, with volcanic activity, earthquakes and avalanches scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $2.0 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Lake and Peninsula Borough had?
OpenFEMA lists 1 federal disaster declaration that included Lake and Peninsula Borough since 2000, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-1316-AK (Severe Winter Storms and Avalanches, declared 17 February 2000). Another 24 Alaska declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Lake and Peninsula Borough?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has no tornado on record touching Lake and Peninsula 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.