Elberton, GA
Elberton wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Elberton at the 66th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 2,701 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Elberton at the 69th national percentile — 3 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Elberton's buildings actually sit
Indirect exposure is dominant in Elberton (69.1% of 2,701 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 31% sit in the Direct zone.
Elberton against the rest of the country
Elberton's 66th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 46th ranking inside Georgia does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 20 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Elberton ranks 10,803 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,924 by building count (1 is largest). Within Georgia alone, it ranks 361 of 669 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Georgia on its state page.
Elberton and the insurance market
Elberton's 66th-percentile, high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Hardening a home in Elberton
Elberton's 69.1% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Elberton's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Elberton's 10,803-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Elberton's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.