Natural hazards · Key Center

Key Center, WA natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Key Center comes from earthquakes, and overall the risk is very high for a U.S. community. Flood insurance has paid 3 claims here since 2009.

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

Expected damage

How exposed is Key Center?

Very high

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Key Center to be higher than in 80% of U.S. communities, mostly from earthquakes and inland flooding.

Earthquakes62%Inland flooding30%Everything else8%

By hazard

What Key Center faces

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

Earthquakes

62% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 93% of U.S. places

Inland flooding

30% of expected damage

Above average · higher than 61% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 9 years in the area

Lower here

Coastal floodingTornadoesHailIce stormsWinter weatherHeat wavesWildfireLandslidesStrong windLightningTsunamisVolcanic activity

Not a risk here

HurricanesCold wavesDroughtAvalanches

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 Key Center flood?

Every paid claim on a federal flood insurance policy in Key Center, from FEMA’s records.

3paid claims since 2009

$91Kpaid to owners

0homes flooded more than once

20092026

of homes in flood zones
are insured

of all homes
are insured

No community discount. Key Center 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 Key Center

Federal disasters declared here

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

Brought FEMA money into Key CenterDeclared for Pierce County only

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

Around Key Center

Key Center and the towns around it

Very lowLowModerateHighVery high

Homemostly earthquakesVery high

Key Centermostly earthquakesVery high

Stansberry Lakemostly earthquakesVery high

Vaughnmostly earthquakesVery high

Waunamostly 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. Key Center covers 2 census tracts, combined by population.

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

FEMA’s expected losses across Key Center total about $5.2M a year, counting buildings, people and crops.

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.