Essex County, NJ

Supports B1-a Hazards

15 of the 18 National Risk Index hazards apply here; omission evidence is shown only where NRI rates a hazard "Not Applicable", no federal declaration names it and Storm Events has no record of it since 1996.

Highest expected annual loss (NRI, modeled): Inland Flooding, Heat Wave and Earthquake.

Also check locally (not covered by NRI): dam failure (incl. upstream dams), levee failure, flash flood as its own subtype, ice jams, debris flows, erosion (riverine and coastal), land subsidence and sinkholes and expansive soils.

Check your state hazard mitigation plan's hazard list for this county; explain any hazard you drop.

Supports B1-b Location

• Avalanche, Earthquake, Hurricane, Landslide, Tornado, Tsunami, Volcanic Activity and Wildfire: Census tract rating counts from the National Risk Index tract table (see B1-f). Tract maps and place names are not in this packet.
• Coastal Flooding and Inland Flooding: The FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) is the required location source for flooding. See the FEMA Flood Map Service Center (https://msc.fema.gov) for this county.
• Cold Wave, Drought, Hail, Heat Wave, Ice Storm, Lightning, Strong Wind and Winter Weather: Affects the whole planning area; national data do not distinguish locations within the county. Confirm locally.

Supports B1-c Extent

Storm Events records for 11 of 20 hazard groups, with the scale, observed range and worst recorded event for each; the others say local data required.

• Hail: 1.75 in hail, 2009-12-09; same size also recorded on 2004-05-12, 2008-06-22
• Thunderstorm Wind: 70 kt (81 mph) estimated gust, Thunderstorm Wind, 2008-06-10; same speed and measurement basis also recorded on 2002-04-19
• Tornado: F1 tornado, 1973-06-29, 1.5 mi path length (records before 1996 may include the whole path; rating and listing come from the county where the tornado began), 33 yd wide, $25,000 property; crops not recorded (1973 dollars)

Supports B1-d Previous occurrences

33 federal declaration rows for this area (22 counted incidents), each with type, dates and county Public Assistance dollars.

New since the last plan (approved 2025-04-28): none.

2 statewide declarations listed separately.

Hazards with no recorded events are stated as such (6 of 18).

Storm Events history: 494 records (notable ones in the PDF, all of them in the Excel file).

Supports B1-e Probability

FEMA annualized frequency (modeled) for each hazard, with a descriptor from a scale defined in the packet.

• Highly likely: Coastal Flooding, Hail, Inland Flooding, Lightning and Strong Wind
• Likely: Heat Wave, Hurricane and Winter Weather
• Possible: Ice Storm, Landslide and Tornado

Historical frequency by intensity band (tornado, hail, wind): 9 bands from Storm Events.

Supports B1-f Variation across the planning area

Range of census tract risk scores within the area for 18 hazards (211 tracts; rated tracts only).

23 member jurisdictions: plan clock, repeat-flood count, Public Assistance dollars and event records naming the place (starter, confirm locally).

Supports B2-a, B2-b Assets and impacts

Local data required

County-level starter. The plan must describe impacts for each participant and its own assets.

Storm Events damage since 2025-04-28: $23,000 in county-coded records (7 records); $0 reported for the zone (10 zone records). Data through 2026-06-30; nominal dollars.

Checklist of what to gather locally: Critical facilities and lifelines per hazard; A problem statement per participant per hazard; Changes in development in hazard-prone areas since the last approval, or a statement of none (E1-a); Future assets.

Supports B2-a Context

Population 863,448; building value $143,681,268,473 and agriculture value $1,493,505 (total, not at risk).

National Risk Index rating Relatively High; social vulnerability Very High; community resilience Relatively Low.

Supports B2-c Repetitive loss

Repetitive-loss properties, FMA definition (44 CFR 77.2): 11 repetitive loss, 147 severe repetitive loss. NFIP insurance definition: 584 and 140.

Mitigated 2; insured 289; NFIP data as of 2026-08-02. Counts by occupancy and for each member community are in the packet.