Atlantic Beach, NC
Atlantic Beach wildfire risk explained
Atlantic Beach's 3,042 buildings earn a 56th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Atlantic Beach at the 49th national percentile — 7 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Atlantic Beach rates 95.7% Minimal exposure against just 4.3% Direct and 0% Indirect — of 3,042 buildings counted, few sit close enough to burnable vegetation for USFS to flag them individually.
How Atlantic Beach compares
Atlantic Beach's risk sits at a similar level relative to North Carolina (54th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (56th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Atlantic Beach ranks 13,937 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,367 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 356 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 56th national percentile, Atlantic Beach rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Atlantic Beach's 95.7% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Atlantic Beach's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,042 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Atlantic Beach. The exposure-zones guide covers what Atlantic Beach's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.