Port Elizabeth, NJ
How exposed is Port Elizabeth to wildfire?
USFS scores Port Elizabeth at the 88th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally), a figure built from 213 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Port Elizabeth's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 85th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
213 buildings are counted in Port Elizabeth, and 60.6% of them sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone — flame contact, not just ember cast, is the live possibility for most of them, against 0.5% rated Minimal.
How Port Elizabeth compares
Port Elizabeth scores 88th nationally and 94th within New Jersey — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Port Elizabeth ranks 3,880 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 24,370 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 46 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Port Elizabeth
Port Elizabeth's 88th-percentile, very 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
With 60.6% of Port Elizabeth 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.
Where Port Elizabeth's figures come from
Port Elizabeth's 88th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Port Elizabeth's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.