County Hazards

States › Washington › King County › ZIP 98126

ZIP code 98126, King County, Washington

National Flood Insurance Program claims and payouts recorded for this ZIP code, with county context.

NCEI notes that Storm Data is compiled from a variety of sources including the National Weather Service, other federal, state and local agencies, the media and the public; that property and crop damage figures are estimates; and that some events are recorded by NWS forecast zone rather than by county. FEMA notes that NFIP claim records are redacted and aggregated to protect the privacy of policyholders. NFIP claims as of 8 Sep 2026.

OpenFEMA lists 18 NFIP claims for ZIP 98126 (King County, Washington), with $864K paid on 9 claims since 1978.

That is 0.5% of the 3,384 claims recorded across King County. The average paid claim in the ZIP is $96K, higher than the county average of $25K and the Washington average of $29K.

FEMA counts 2 repetitive-loss properties and 0 severe repetitive-loss properties in the ZIP (properties with two or more paid flood claims); their locations are not published.

At county level FEMA counts 4,529 residential flood policies in force, covering 0.8% of residential structures.

18NFIP claims since 1978
9paid claims
$864Ktotal paid
$96Kaverage paid claim

Compared with the county and state

MeasureZIP 98126KingWashingtonUS
Claims since 1978183,38416,0742,680,429
Share of claims paid50%79%80%78%
Average paid claim$96K$25K$29K$43K
Share of county claims0.5%100%——
Repetitive-loss properties23531,444—

Claims by year of loss

197820022026
NFIP claims in ZIP 98126 by year of loss, 1978 to 2026.
DecadeClaimsPaid
1970s2$4,400
1980s2$0
1990s1$0
2000s5$119,617
2010s4$63,576
2020s4$676,864
Year of lossClaimsPaid claimsAmount paidAverage paid
202222$670,965$335,482
202110$0—
202011$5,899$5,899
201211$47,233$47,233
201110$0—
201021$16,343$16,343
200910$0—
200721$5,451$5,451
200622$114,167$57,083
199610$0—
198710$0—
198610$0—
197921$4,400$4,400

Claims are counted by year of loss as recorded in OpenFEMA's redacted NFIP claims file; amounts combine building, contents and increased-cost-of-compliance payments. ZIP codes in the file are the policyholder's reported ZIP.

County context: King County

King County has 83 weather events in the NCEI record since 1950 (0 in the last 12 months), 35 federal disaster declarations, and an overall National Risk Index rating of "Very High". Flood-type events recorded in the county: 8; hurricane-strength tracks within 50 miles: 0.

Hail: 4 · Tornado: 5 · Flood: 8 · Wind: 7 · Winter: 0 — full county page.

Questions and answers

How many flood insurance claims have been filed in ZIP 98126?

18 claims since 1978 in the OpenFEMA NFIP claims file, 9 of them with a payment.

How much has the NFIP paid out in ZIP 98126?

$864K across 9 paid claims (building, contents and increased-cost-of-compliance payments combined), about $96K per paid claim.

Which year had the most flood claims in 98126?

1979, with 2 claims and $4K paid.

What county is ZIP 98126 in?

Most claims in this ZIP carry the county code for King County, Washington; ZIP codes can cross county lines. The county page carries the storm record, declarations and risk index for the area.

Provenance

OpenFEMA NfipClaims v3 (as of 8 Sep 2026) and NfipMultipleLossProperties v1 (2 Aug 2026), aggregated by ZIP code and year of loss on this site; no property-level record is shown. County storm figures from NOAA NCEI through 30 Jun 2026. Built 30 Sep 2026. See the guide to redacted NFIP claims and the methodology.