Chula Vista’s biggest natural hazard is hurricanes
Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Chula Vista comes from hurricanes, and overall the risk is high for a U.S. community.
What stands out about Chula Vista’s weather risks
Read from FEMA’s records below. The page puts what stands out first.
Does Chula Vista flood? No paid flood claims on record
FEMA’s records show no paid flood insurance claims in Chula Vista. That’s not a promise: most homes don’t carry flood insurance, so small floods go unrecorded.
Chula Vista isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.
Insurance rates: Cameron County.How exposed is Chula Vista?
FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings here to be higher than in 73% of U.S. communities, mostly from hurricanes and inland flooding.
Rated higher than 1,583 of the 1,859 Texas towns we cover.
Chula Vista is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.
What Chula Vista faces
Each hazard’s share of the damage FEMA expects here, and how it compares with the rest of the country.
Hurricanes
Inland flooding
Cold waves
Wildfire
Federal disasters declared here
None of the disasters declared for Cameron County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Chula Vista itself in FEMA’s records.
Cameron County has had 29 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often hurricanes and floods.
Get ready for what Chula Vista actually faces
A short kit for its top hazards, what to check before you buy, and where neighbors get alerts.
- The season runs June through November and peaks from mid-August to mid-October.
- Bring in porch furniture and anything the wind can throw.
- Fill the gas tank and charge phones before the storm arrives.
- 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.
- Let faucets drip so pipes don’t freeze.
- Know where your water shutoff is.
- Never heat the house with the oven or a grill.
- 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.
Chula Vista 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chula Vista | High | hurricanes | 0 |
| Orason | High | hurricanes | 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 July–September
The month each of Cameron 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 Chula Vista’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to Chula Vista.
- 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 Chula Vista.
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.