Gautier, MS
Gautier wildfire risk explained
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Gautier at the 96th national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 9,366 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Gautier at the 96th national percentile — 0 points above its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
49.4% of Gautier's 9,366 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 4,625 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 32.8% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 17.9% are Minimal. At 9,366 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
How Gautier compares
Gautier's risk sits at a similar level relative to Mississippi (99th percentile statewide) as it does nationally (96th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Gautier ranks 1,414 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 1,749 by building count (1 is largest). Within Mississippi alone, it ranks 5 of 420 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Mississippi on its state page.
Gautier and the insurance market
Gautier's very high rating (96th 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.
What would actually reduce this score
With 49.4% of Gautier in Direct exposure, defensible-space clearing and ember-resistant construction (vents, Class-A roofing) address the exposure this page's own numbers describe, not a generic checklist. See the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 9,366 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Gautier. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Gautier, see the exposure-zones guide.