Natural hazards · Fife Heights

Fife Heights, WA natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Fife 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 Fife Heights?

Very high

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Fife Heights to be higher than in 92% of U.S. communities, mostly from earthquakes.

Earthquakes84%Inland flooding13%Everything else4%

By hazard

What Fife Heights faces

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

Earthquakes

84% of expected damage

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

Inland flooding

13% of expected damage

Below average · higher than 36% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 9 years in the area

Lower here

Coastal floodingTornadoesHailIce stormsWinter weatherHeat wavesWildfireLandslidesStrong windLightningDroughtTsunamisVolcanic activity

Not a risk here

HurricanesCold wavesAvalanches

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 Fife Heights flood?

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

of homes in flood zones
are insured

of all homes
are insured

No community discount. Fife 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: Pierce County.

Disasters that hit Fife Heights

Federal disasters declared here

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

Brought FEMA money into Fife HeightsDeclared for Pierce County only

Pierce County has had 22 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often floods and severe storms.

Around Fife Heights

Fife Heights and the towns around it

Very lowLowModerateHighVery high

Fife Heightsmostly earthquakesVery high

Fifemostly earthquakesVery high

Tacomamostly earthquakesHigh

Miltonmostly earthquakesHigh

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