Risk-assessment baseline packet (county-level sections from Bennington County). Town FIPS 5000357025, Bennington County. Release 2026-10, data as of 2026-09-30.
Summary
Plan status as of 2026-09-30: No plan row in FEMA data.
Sections B1-a, B1-b, B1-c, B1-d, B1-e, B2-a and B2-b use Bennington County data (county FIPS 50003; each heading says so); the plan clock, B1-f and B2-c are for Pownal town.
Highest expected annual loss (FEMA National Risk Index, modeled total; see B1-a): Inland Flooding ($11,624,078 a year), Cold Wave ($4,990,522) and Hurricane ($780,683).
The packet's tables are organized by the items of FEMA's Local Mitigation Plan Review Tool, Element B (B1-a to B2-c); the summaries below follow the same order.
What the packet contains
Sections in FEMA checklist order; each heading names the review item its tables support. Full tables are in the downloads above.
Supports FEMA checklist item B1-a Hazard identification
County-level: Bennington County.
15 of the 18 National Risk Index hazards apply here.
Not applicable to this county per NRI, with no federal declaration and no Storm Events record since 1996: coastal flooding, tsunami and volcanic activity. That is the evidence for leaving them out of the plan.
Highest expected annual loss (NRI, modeled): Inland Flooding, Cold Wave and Hurricane.
Not covered by NRI (local data needed): 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; expansive soils.
The state hazard mitigation plan also lists hazards for this county; FEMA asks the plan to explain any hazard it leaves out.
Supports FEMA checklist item B1-b Hazard location
County-level: Bennington County.
- Avalanche, Earthquake, Hurricane, Landslide, Tornado and Wildfire vary within the county; the packet lists the highest-rated census tracts for each.
- Cold Wave, Drought, Hail, Heat Wave, Ice Storm, Lightning, Strong Wind and Winter Weather: affects the whole county; national data give no location within it.
- 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.
Supports FEMA checklist item B1-c Hazard extent
County-level: Bennington County.
Storm Events records for 15 of the 20 NOAA event-type groups mapped to the 18 hazards, with the scale, observed range and worst recorded event for each; the others say which local data are needed.
Worst recorded tornado, hail and thunderstorm wind (the three event types on record since the 1950s; the packet has every group):
- Hail: 3.25 in hail, 2011-06-01
- Thunderstorm Wind: 87 kt (100 mph) estimated gust, Thunderstorm Wind, 2017-07-01
- Tornado: F2 tornado, 1969-05-29, 0.5 mi path length (whole path, pre-1996), 33 yd wide, $25,000 property; crops not recorded (1969 dollars), 1 direct injury
Supports FEMA checklist item B1-d Previous occurrences
County-level: Bennington County (federal declarations, statewide declarations and Storm Events history).
Federal declarations for this area: 21 declarations covering 17 separate hazard incidents counted in this packet; each with type, dates and county Public Assistance dollars.
No plan row in FEMA data, so there is no approval date to count from.
2 statewide declarations listed separately.
Hazards with no Storm Events record and no federal declaration are stated as such (5 of 18).
Storm Events history: 784 records (notable ones in the PDF, all of them in the Excel file).
Supports FEMA checklist item B1-e Probability of future events
County-level: Bennington County.
FEMA annualized frequency (modeled) for each hazard, with a descriptor from a scale defined in the packet.
- Highly likely: Hail, Landslide, Lightning, Strong Wind and Winter Weather
- Likely: Cold Wave, Drought, Heat Wave, Ice Storm, Inland Flooding and Tornado
- Possible: Avalanche, Hurricane and Wildfire
Historical frequency by intensity band (tornado, hail, wind): 9 bands from Storm Events.
Supports FEMA checklist item B1-f Hazards that vary across jurisdictions
Range of census tract risk scores within the area for 15 of the 18 hazards (12 tracts; rated tracts only).
Supports FEMA checklist items B2-a and B2-b Vulnerability and potential impacts
County-level: Bennington County (National Risk Index exposure and expected annual loss; since-plan counts use Pownal town's approval date).
The packet's table gives county-level starting figures; the plan describes impacts for each jurisdiction and its own assets.
No plan row in FEMA data, so there is no approval date to count from.
Local data needed
To gather:
- Critical facilities and lifelines per hazard
- A problem statement per jurisdiction per hazard
- Changes in development in hazard-prone areas since the last approval, or a statement of none (E1-a)
- Future assets
- Vermont Flood Ready Atlas and Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) river corridors for town flood and erosion locations.
- The Emergency Relief and Assistance Fund (ERAF) Flood Hazard Summary gives E911 building counts in the Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) per town.
- Vermont Dam Inventory for dams in and upstream of the town.
- Vermont Emergency Management (VEM) hazard mitigation planning resources and the 2023 Vermont State Hazard Mitigation Plan.
Supports FEMA checklist item B2-a Vulnerability (county context)
County-level: Bennington County.
Population 37,345; building value $11,309,918,513 and agriculture value $22,597,593 (total, not at risk).
National Risk Index rating Relatively Low; social vulnerability Relatively Low; community resilience Relatively High.
Supports FEMA checklist item B2-c Repetitive loss properties
Repetitive-loss properties (Bennington County, county-level), FMA definition (44 CFR 77.2): 0 repetitive loss, 0 severe repetitive loss. NFIP insurance definition: 6 and 0.
Mitigated 0; insured 2; NFIP data as of 2026-08-02. Counts by occupancy group and for each jurisdiction are in the packet.