Elk Rapids, MI
How exposed is Elk Rapids to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Elk Rapids at the 19th national percentile for risk to structures, among the lower wildfire-risk places nationally — a score built from 1,392 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Elk Rapids at the 19th percentile, close to its 19th-percentile risk score.
Where Elk Rapids's buildings actually sit
1,392 buildings are counted in Elk Rapids, and 64.2% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 15.4% in Direct exposure or the 20.5% rated Minimal.
How Elk Rapids compares
Compare Elk Rapids's two percentiles: 64th within Michigan, only 19th nationally — a gap of 45 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Elk Rapids ranks 25,498 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 9,666 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 270 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Elk Rapids
At the 19th national percentile, Elk Rapids rates low 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
Elk Rapids's 64.2% 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.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Elk Rapids's 25,498-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Elk Rapids, see the exposure-zones guide.