Lake Waccamaw, NC
Lake Waccamaw, NC's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
Lake Waccamaw's 1,156 buildings earn a 78th-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 Lake Waccamaw at the 77th percentile, close to its 78th-percentile risk score.
Lake Waccamaw's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 91.7% of Lake Waccamaw's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 7.4% Indirect share and far above its 1% Minimal share — a profile where 1,060 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
Lake Waccamaw against the rest of the country
Lake Waccamaw scores 78th nationally and 81st within North Carolina — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Lake Waccamaw ranks 6,939 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 10,908 by building count (1 is largest). Within North Carolina alone, it ranks 151 of 772 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for North Carolina on its state page.
Lake Waccamaw and the insurance market
At the 78th percentile nationally, Lake Waccamaw carries the high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
Hardening a home in Lake Waccamaw
Lake Waccamaw's 91.7% 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 Lake Waccamaw's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 1,156 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Lake Waccamaw. The exposure-zones guide covers what Lake Waccamaw's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.