---
title: "A Review Of Disaster Calculators"
description: "If you find yourself drawn to online calculators or forecasting widgets like DQYDJ or SmartAsset, then this article is for you."
canonical: "https://www.coveragecat.com/blog/review-of-disaster-calculators"
last-updated: "2026-08-13"
---

# A Review Of Disaster Calculators

A good online calculator has four things:  - Accuracy
- Completeness, or a full set of inputs and outputs
- Transparency, as to how calculations are made
- Sense, it chooses good defaults for inputs based on the intended user and is it easy to navigate 

We’ve gathered some of our favorite  **natural disaster calculators**  to see how they hold up to these criteria and some more general thoughts on usability and bugs. ![](/cms/images/uploads/img_7CF8D3A00035B39C3_Screenshotfrom20221222152637.png) 
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    <h2>Flood Cost Calculator</h2>
    <p>by FEMA Floodsmart</p>
    <p>This is a disaster calculator with one goal: get
    users to understand flood costs. It has two inputs: a
    three-option choice for home size and a flood level toggle.
    It's simple, gives live feedback, and has an understandable
    illustration. Great purpose-built calculator.</p>
    <p>If there’s a problem with it, it's that the call to
    action doesn’t just point users to Coverage Cat for a faster
    and more optimized buying experience than navigation across a
    multi-menu state-by-state flood insurance provider tool.</p>
    <p><a href=
    "https://www.floodsmart.gov/cost-flooding">Check it out
    yourself</a></p>
  </div>
  <div class="column"><img src=
  "/cms/images/uploads/img_9B7120A02EC8B626D_Screenshotfrom20221222102710.png"></div>
</div>

 
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    <h2>Minimum Flood Coverage Calculator</h2>
    <p>by Fannie Mae</p>
    <p>This Fannie Mae calculator has a narrower purpose
    than most other tools on the list. Its stated intention is to
    help lenders ensure a property has the coverage required for a
    Fannie Mae supported mortgage. The inputs require property
    information and value plus current/intended insurance coverage.
    The output is a Sufficient/Not Sufficient declaration that
    informs the lender if the property has enough flood insurance
    coverage.</p>
    <p>The calculator succeeds, because it provides a
    clear go/no-go signal and does so with limited user time
    investment, few questions, and high explainability in the form
    of a Calculations tab. All good lessons for the <a href=
    "https://www.coveragecat.com/intake">Coverage Cats ;).</a></p>
    <p><a href=
    "https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/originating-underwriting/flood-insurance-coverage-calculator#/">
    Check it out yourself</a></p>
  </div>
  <div class="column"><img src=
  "/cms/images/uploads/img_B25908C8FD773C460_FannieMaeFloodCalculator.png"></div>
</div>

 
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    <h2>Earthquake Insurance Premium Calculator</h2>
    <p>by the California Earthquake Authority</p>
    <p>The California Earthquake Authority– a
    “not-for-profit, publicly managed, privately funded entity”–
    built a tool with a great calculator aesthetic: white
    background, readable buttons, a parseable form. It also
    concludes with a price, always a plus in our book.</p>
    <p>However, once you share your address– a process
    that requires two dummy forms that go unused in the final
    output– problems start to mount. Why does cost estimation at
    this level require information about an insurer? Does this tool
    check against a set of filed rate cards for one company? Or
    across companies? What exactly does that price gauge show? Is
    it helping the user compare their cost across the insurance
    category?&nbsp;</p>
    <p>Strange choices about how to describe deductibles
    and property coverage options are also off-putting. Personal
    property coverage is capped at $200k for both renters and
    homeowners while loss of use coverage is capped at $100k. These
    might seem generous, but it should be easier for homeowners who
    live in an earthquake sensitive zone to understand their
    catastrophic coverage needs. Using a % of the dwelling coverage
    as a deductible and on an inverted high-to-low scale only add
    to the confusion.</p>
    <p><a href=
    "https://www.earthquakeauthority.com/California-Earthquake-Insurance-Policies/Earthquake-Insurance-Premium-Calculator%C2%A0">
    Check it out yourself</a></p>
  </div>
  <div class="column"><img src=
  "/cms/images/uploads/img_F1CA47152122EA15B_CaliforniaEarthquakeAuthorityCalculator.png"></div>
</div>

 
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    <h2>Minimum Flood Coverage Calculator</h2>
    <p>by Banker's Online</p>
    <p>Similar to the Fannie Mae calculator, but in a more
    platonic calculator user interface: a spreadsheet. It provides
    a data dictionary upfront with the spreadsheet download and a
    picture (!!) of the spreadsheet as a preview.&nbsp;</p>
    <p>Does the job, provides great calculation
    transparency, doesn’t have weird UI bugs. One thing to watch
    for is that if the National Flood Insurance Program coverage
    rules or limits change the sheet might not be automatically
    updated– though this is true for almost all calculators in this
    review.</p>
    <p><a href=
    "https://www.bankersonline.com/tools/151072">Check it out
    yourself</a></p>
  </div>
  <div class="column"><img src=
  "/cms/images/uploads/img_D55004D0D7DF078E5_BankersOnlineRiskCalculator.png"></div>
</div>

 
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  <div class="column">
    <h2>Flood Insurance Price Estimator</h2>
    <p>by the Virginia Department of Conservation &
    Recreation</p>
    <p>This Virginia DCR grant-funded calculator from
    GetFloodFluent.org has a lot going for it. It shows an actual
    price estimate, lets you update your answers after filling out
    the form, and provides a progress bar. Everything from here on
    out is a nit since, again, it provides a price
    estimate.&nbsp;</p>
    <p>The nitpicks here come from a few bugs:</p>
    <p>1) One of the two transformation inputs (building
    coverage) doesn’t allow a value larger than $250,000. But
    instead of explaining this the calculator lets you proceed with
    no error. Then it reduces the number– with no explanation– in
    the final risk-price presentation. Unclear if this is a bug
    with the software used to set up the calculator (typeform) or a
    missing piece of business logic.</p>
    <p>2) The contrast when items are selected from a
    dropdown feels high (it shifts to the red-wine-gradient
    background) and the transitions, while buttery, are over the
    top for a tool that might work in a drier style like the
    Bankers Online or Fannie Mae calculators.</p>
    <p><a href=
    "https://getfloodfluent.org/how-do-i-get-flood-insurance/#How-Much">
    Check it out yourself</a></p>
  </div>
  <div class="column"><img src=
  "/cms/images/uploads/img_FC9058C14DBCA0602_VirginiaFloodCalculator.png"></div>
</div>

 
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    <h2>Global Flood Map</h2>
    <p>The global flood map has promise, and brings
    attention to the horrific problem of displaced people who will
    be affected by global-warming-induced floods.</p>
    <p>But it also has some serious problems: the “below
    sea level -&gt; high ground” key isn’t well explained, some of
    the missing elevation data could be better manicured away. It
    could also stand to provide a data layer that showcases the
    human displacement on the map as opposed to just sea level
    above or below.</p>
    <p>Design sins aside, it also provides no https
    (secure) version of the site which is why we don’t link it
    directly. But the number of people flooded list, the table
    updates based on your sea-level input choice, is stark.</p>
  </div>
  <div class="column"><img src=
  "/cms/images/uploads/img_88C60F8CAC2E0AED2_GlobalFloodMap.png"></div>
</div>

 
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    <h2>Tornado Risk Calculator</h2>
    <p>by SPC NOAA</p>
    <p>This tornado risk calculator built by John Hart @
    NOAA is focused on modeling the cost in human life of tornados
    based on their location. It provides a more complex set of
    outputs so that risk planners of various types can help reduce
    the threat of tornadoes to human life based on a location and
    tornado strength.&nbsp;</p>
    <p>Our only suggestion here might be that, depending
    on the intended consumer of the data it might be easier to slim
    down the input choices to only the location then provide a
    range of models based on tornado strength (or at least
    providing sensible defaults around these), but it is likely
    that the intended user is better-versed in what inputs to
    choose and how.</p>
    <p><a href=
    "https://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/online/probs/">Check it out
    yourself</a></p>
  </div>
  <div class="column"><img src=
  "/cms/images/uploads/img_E8E78CADC0784A4F6_TornadoRiskAssessment.png"></div>
</div>

 

  
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    <h2>Flood Planning Tool</h2>
    <p>by Delaware Natural Resources & Environmental
    Control</p>
    <p>With the satellite images of Delaware covering most
    of the screen, it's definitely one of the most eye catching
    risk tools in the set. It takes a location as input and outputs
    a Yes/No on whether its in a 100-year floodplain when
    cross-referenced with a FEMA map.&nbsp;</p>
    <p>It does this well. It’d be nice if the Yes/No
    decision popped a bit more in some cases (you can see how the
    blacks and greens can blends in depending on the background of
    the map). Otherwise great, if slightly overstimulating,
    tool.&nbsp;</p>
    <p><a href=
    "https://floodplanning.dnrec.delaware.gov/">Check it out for
    yourself</a></p>
  </div>
  <div class="column"><img src=
  "/cms/images/uploads/img_262470F200FC67459_DelawareFloodPlanning.png"></div>
</div>