Orleans, NE
How exposed is Orleans to wildfire?
USFS scores Orleans at the 37th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (close to the middle of USFS's national wildfire-risk range), a figure built from 443 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Orleans at the 35th percentile, close to its 37th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
76.3% of Orleans's 443 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 16.7% Direct and 7% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone.
Orleans against the rest of the country
Orleans's 37th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 21st ranking inside Nebraska does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 16 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Orleans ranks 19,854 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 18,399 by building count (1 is largest). Within Nebraska alone, it ranks 462 of 583 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Nebraska on its state page.
Orleans and the insurance market
Orleans's moderate wildfire rating (37th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
What would actually reduce this score
Orleans's 76.3% 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
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 443 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Orleans. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Orleans, see the exposure-zones guide.