Salmon Creek’s biggest natural hazard is landslides
Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Salmon Creek comes from landslides, and overall the risk is very high for a U.S. community.
What stands out about Salmon Creek’s weather risks
Read from FEMA’s records below. The page puts what stands out first.
What Salmon Creek faces
Each hazard’s share of the damage FEMA expects here, and how it compares with the rest of the country.
Landslides
Inland flooding
Earthquakes
Does Salmon Creek flood? No paid flood claims on record
FEMA’s records show no paid flood insurance claims in Salmon Creek. That’s not a promise: most homes don’t carry flood insurance, so small floods go unrecorded.
Salmon Creek isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.
Insurance rates: Sonoma County.How exposed is Salmon Creek?
FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings here to be higher than in 98% of U.S. communities, mostly from landslides and inland flooding.
Rated higher than 1,383 of the 1,619 California towns we cover.
Salmon Creek is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.
Federal disasters declared here
None of the disasters declared for Sonoma County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Salmon Creek itself in FEMA’s records.
Sonoma County has had 29 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often floods and severe storms.
Get ready for what Salmon Creek actually faces
A short kit for its top hazards, what to check before you buy, and where neighbors get alerts.
- Watch for new cracks, tilting trees or suddenly muddy streams after heavy rain.
- Stay off steep slopes in a downpour.
- Leave if you hear rumbling upslope.
- 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.
Salmon Creek and its neighbors
How storm and flood risk compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its hazards.
| Town | Rating | Mostly | Flood claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salmon Creek | Very high | landslides | 0 |
| Bodega Bay | Very high | earthquakes | 0 |
Rating = expected yearly storm and flood damage as a share of what’s there, vs. U.S. communities. Flood claims = paid federal flood insurance claims on record.
Most disasters here begin in December–February
The month each of Sonoma County’s 29 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 Salmon Creek’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to Salmon Creek.
- 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 Salmon Creek.
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.