Merriman, NE
How exposed is Merriman to wildfire?
Merriman's 150 buildings earn a 88th-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Merriman at the 87th percentile, close to its 88th-percentile risk score.
Merriman's building exposure, zone by zone
Indirect exposure is dominant in Merriman (66.7% of 150 buildings): far enough from burnable vegetation to avoid flame contact, close enough for wind-blown embers. Only 33.3% sit in the Direct zone.
Where Merriman ranks
There's little gap between Merriman's 88th national percentile and its 96th percentile inside Nebraska, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Merriman ranks 3,941 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 26,885 by building count (1 is largest). Within Nebraska alone, it ranks 27 of 583 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Nebraska on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
At the 88th percentile nationally, Merriman carries the very 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.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 66.7% of Merriman'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.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Merriman's 3,941-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Merriman, see the exposure-zones guide.