Elberta, AL
Elberta wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Elberta lands at the 86th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 1,342 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Elberta at the 86th percentile, close to its 86th-percentile risk score.
Where Elberta's buildings actually sit
USFS classifies 68.5% of Elberta's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 30.7% Indirect share and far above its 0.8% Minimal share — a profile where 919 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Elberta against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Elberta's 86th national percentile and its 90th percentile inside Alabama, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Elberta ranks 4,493 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,866 by building count (1 is largest). Within Alabama alone, it ranks 60 of 592 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Alabama on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Elberta
Elberta's very high rating (86th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Hardening a home in Elberta
Elberta's 68.5% 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 Elberta's figures come from
Elberta's 86th-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 Elberta's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.