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2025 Hazard Mitigation Plan <br />Kittitas County, Washington <br /> <br /> <br />Chapter 4: Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment 64 <br />for Property Damage. A weighting factor of one (1) was assigned for Economic, Environmental, Essential <br />Operations, Future Development, and Climate Change. <br />4.4. FEMA NATIONAL RISK INDEX SCORES <br />The National Risk Index (NRI) is a dataset and online tool to help illustrate the United States communities <br />most at risk communities for 18 natural hazards. These include: <br /> <br />• Avalanche <br />• Coastal Flooding <br />• Cold Wave <br />• Drought <br />• Earthquake <br />• Hail <br />• Heat Wave <br />• Hurricane <br />• Ice Storm <br />• Landslide <br />• Lightning <br />• Riverine Flooding <br />• Strong Wind <br />• Tornado <br />• Tsunami <br />• Volcanic Activity <br />• Wildfire <br />• Winter Weather <br /> <br />All the hazards on this list are not applicable to Kittitas County; therefore, only those hazards with a <br />defined risk to the County will be included in this Plan. The NRI’s goal is to fill gaps in available data and <br />analyses to better inform federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial decision makers as they develop risk <br />reduction strategies. <br /> <br />In the NRI, risk is defined as the potential for negative impacts as a result of a natural hazard. The Risk <br />Index is based on three (3) components – a natural hazards component (Expected Annual Loss), a <br />consequence enhancing component (Social Vulnerability), and a consequence reduction component <br />(Community Resilience). Using these components, the composite and hazard type Risk Index values are <br />calculated for each community (county and Census Tract). Risk Index values form an absolute basis for <br />measuring Risk within the NRI and are used to generate Risk Index percentiles and ratings across <br />communities.48F <br />49 <br /> <br />Table 4-17 illustrates the Risk Index rating and score for Kittitas County. <br />Table 4-17. Risk Index Score for Kittitas County (FEMA National Risk Index) <br />Jurisdiction Rating Score <br />Kittitas County Very High 84.4 <br />Risk Index scores are calculated using an equation that combines scores for Expected Annual Loss due to natural hazards, Soci al <br />Vulnerability and Community Resilience (Expected Annual Loss x Social Vulnerability / Community Resilience = Risk Index). <br />4.4.1. Expected Annual Loss <br />The Expected Annual Loss (EAL), the natural hazards component of the NRI, represents the average <br />economic loss in dollars resulting from natural hazards each year. It is calculated for each hazard type <br />and quantified loss for relevant consequence types such as, buildings, people, and agriculture. The EAL <br />score and rating represents a community’s relative level of expected losses each year when compared <br /> <br />49 Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2023). Determining Risk. Retrieved from <br />https://hazards.fema.gov/nri/determining-risk.