Natural hazards · Ridgecrest Heights

Ridgecrest Heights, CA natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Ridgecrest Heights comes from earthquakes, 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 Ridgecrest Heights?

Very high

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Ridgecrest Heights to be higher than in 82% of U.S. communities, mostly from earthquakes and inland flooding.

Earthquakes49%Inland flooding41%Heat waves9%Everything else2%

By hazard

What Ridgecrest Heights faces

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

Earthquakes

49% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 91% of U.S. places

Inland flooding

41% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 80% of U.S. places

Recorded about 6 times a year in the area

Heat waves

9% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 88% of U.S. places

Recorded about 7 times a year in the area

Lower here

TornadoesHailWinter weatherWildfireStrong windLightningVolcanic activity

Not a risk here

Coastal floodingHurricanesIce stormsCold wavesLandslidesDroughtAvalanchesTsunamis

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 Ridgecrest Heights flood?

FEMA's records show no paid flood insurance claims in Ridgecrest Heights.

of homes in flood zones
are insured

of all homes
are insured

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

Insurance rates: Kern County.

Disasters that hit Ridgecrest Heights

Federal disasters declared here

None of the disasters declared for Kern County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Ridgecrest Heights itself in FEMA’s records.

Brought FEMA money into Ridgecrest HeightsDeclared for Kern County only

Kern County has had 37 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often fires and floods.

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. Ridgecrest Heights 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 Ridgecrest Heights’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to Ridgecrest Heights. 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.