Oak Shores’s biggest natural hazard is wildfire
Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Oak Shores comes from wildfires, and overall the risk is very high for a U.S. community. 1 federal disaster brought FEMA money into town.
What stands out about Oak Shores’s weather risks
Read from FEMA’s records below. The page puts what stands out first.
Does Oak Shores flood? No paid flood claims on record
FEMA’s records show no paid flood insurance claims in Oak Shores. That’s not a promise: most homes don’t carry flood insurance, so small floods go unrecorded.
Oak Shores isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.
Insurance rates: San Luis Obispo County.How exposed is Oak Shores?
FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings here to be higher than in 93% of U.S. communities, mostly from wildfires and inland flooding.
Rated higher than 1,075 of the 1,619 California towns we cover.
Oak Shores is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.
What Oak Shores faces
Each hazard’s share of the damage FEMA expects here, and how it compares with the rest of the country.
Wildfire
Inland flooding
Earthquakes
Landslides
1 federal disaster brought FEMA money to Oak Shores
Disasters that paid out in Oak Shores itself (aid to households or repair grants to Oak Shores) and its biggest flood years.
- 2003Earthquake3 households applied for aid$8K aid approved
San Luis Obispo County has had 24 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often floods and severe storms.
Old photos of Oak Shores after a storm or flood belong in the town’s history. Add one, or share what you remember below.
Add to the Oak Shores archive →Get ready for what Oak Shores actually faces
A short kit for its top hazards, what to check before you buy, and where neighbors get alerts.
- Clear dead leaves and brush within 5 feet of the house.
- Sign up for local alerts and know two ways out.
- Keep N95 masks for smoky days.
- Turn around at flooded roads: a foot of moving water can carry off a car.
- Flood insurance usually takes 30 days to start, so buy it before the forecast.
- Keep papers and medicines up high, in a grab-and-go bag.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap tall furniture and the water heater to the wall.
- Know how to shut off the gas.
- Look up the address on FEMA’s flood map.
- Ask the seller or landlord whether it has ever flooded, and what flood insurance costs there.
- Get a flood insurance quote early: policies usually start 30 days after you buy.
Know where neighbors sign up for alerts? Add it to the Handbook so everyone has it.
Most disasters here begin in December–February
The month each of San Luis Obispo County’s 24 declared disasters began, since 1953.
What these numbers can and can’t tell you
- An average, not a forecast. FEMA’s National Risk Index estimates the damage 18 kinds of natural hazards cause in a typical year, from decades of records and models. A quiet decade can follow a bad year.
- Compared by rate. “Higher than N%” compares yearly damage as a share of what’s there, so a big city isn’t rated riskier just for having more buildings.
- Money that reached town. Flood claims are matched to Oak Shores’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to Oak Shores.
- It follows property value. FEMA’s model weighs damage to buildings, so a place that recently lost many homes can rate lower than it feels.
Storm stories
Memories, warnings and help from neighbors in Oak Shores.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Sources: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025); OpenFEMA: NFIP redacted claims, multiple-loss properties, community status book and residential penetration rates, housing assistance (owners and renters), public assistance funded projects, hazard mitigation properties and disaster declarations. Census tracts: U.S. Census Bureau. Preparedness tips: Ready.gov. An average of past damage, not a forecast.