Shuqualak, MS
How exposed is Shuqualak to wildfire?
Out of every US place USFS scores, Shuqualak lands at the 60th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 275 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Shuqualak at the 63rd percentile, close to its 60th-percentile risk score.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
76% of Shuqualak's 275 buildings sit in USFS's Direct exposure zone, roughly 209 structures close enough to burnable vegetation for flame contact, not just embers — 24% fall in the Indirect, ember-only zone and 0% are Minimal.
Shuqualak against the rest of the country
Shuqualak's 60th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 36th ranking inside Mississippi does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 25 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Shuqualak ranks 12,512 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,357 by building count (1 is largest). Within Mississippi alone, it ranks 272 of 420 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Mississippi on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Shuqualak
Shuqualak's 60th-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.
What would actually reduce this score
Shuqualak's 76% 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 Shuqualak's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 275 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Shuqualak. The exposure-zones guide covers what Shuqualak's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.