Natural hazards · Pajaro Dunes

Pajaro Dunes, CA natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Pajaro Dunes comes from drought, and overall the risk is very high for a U.S. community.

FEMA National Risk Index, December 2025 · OpenFEMA claims, aid & declarations

Expected damage

How exposed is Pajaro Dunes?

Very high

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Pajaro Dunes to be higher than in 90% of U.S. communities, mostly from drought and earthquakes.

Drought39%Earthquakes31%Inland flooding29%Everything else1%

By hazard

What Pajaro Dunes faces

Each hazard’s share of the damage FEMA expects here, and how that compares with the rest of the country.

Drought

39% of expected damage

Recorded about 40 times a year in the area

Earthquakes

31% of expected damage

Well above average · among the top 1% of U.S. places

Inland flooding

29% of expected damage

Above average · higher than 52% of U.S. places

Recorded about 2 times a year in the area

Lower here

Coastal floodingTornadoesHailWinter weatherHeat wavesWildfireLandslidesStrong windLightningTsunamis

Not a risk here

HurricanesIce stormsCold wavesAvalanchesVolcanic activity

Flood risk changes street by street. Check a specific address on FEMA’s flood map, and ask about flood insurance before you buy.

Flood insurance claims

Does Pajaro Dunes flood?

FEMA's records show no paid flood insurance claims in Pajaro Dunes.

of homes in flood zones
are insured

of all homes
are insured

No community discount. Pajaro Dunes isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.

Insurance rates: Santa Cruz County.

Disasters that hit Pajaro Dunes

Federal disasters declared here

None of the disasters declared for Santa Cruz County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Pajaro Dunes itself in FEMA’s records.

Brought FEMA money into Pajaro DunesDeclared for Santa Cruz County only

Santa Cruz County has had 29 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often floods and severe storms.

About these numbers

How to read this page

An average, not a forecastFEMA’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 here, so a big city isn’t rated riskier just for having more buildings. Pajaro Dunes is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.

Money that reached townFlood claims are matched to Pajaro Dunes’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to Pajaro Dunes. FEMA’s model follows property values, so a place that recently lost many homes can rate lower than it feels.

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.