Catawba, SC
Catawba wildfire risk explained
Catawba's 833 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.)
Separately from the risk score above, Catawba's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 59th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Of Catawba's 833 counted buildings, 85% carry Direct exposure and only 0.1% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Catawba against the rest of the country
Inside South Carolina, Catawba sits at just the 11th percentile even though it scores 56th nationally — the state's overall wildfire exposure is high enough to make this a relatively quiet corner of it. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Catawba ranks 13,975 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 13,320 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Carolina alone, it ranks 424 of 474 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Carolina on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Catawba's elevated rating (56th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Catawba
Catawba's 85% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
Where Catawba's figures come from
Catawba's 56th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Catawba's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.