Kennebec, SD
How exposed is Kennebec to wildfire?
Kennebec's 279 buildings earn a 71st-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Kennebec at the 66th percentile, close to its 71st-percentile risk score.
Where Kennebec's buildings actually sit
USFS puts 74.2% of Kennebec's 279 buildings in the Indirect exposure zone, versus 25.8% Direct and 0% Minimal — a place where the fire doesn't need to reach the structure directly for embers to.
Kennebec against the rest of the country
There's little gap between Kennebec's 71st national percentile and its 68th percentile inside South Dakota, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Kennebec ranks 9,087 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,240 by building count (1 is largest). Within South Dakota alone, it ranks 142 of 439 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for South Dakota on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Kennebec
Kennebec's 71st-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 74.2% of Kennebec's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
Where Kennebec's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 279 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Kennebec. The exposure-zones guide covers what Kennebec's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.