Waterford, MS
Waterford wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Waterford lands at the 83rd percentile for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a figure built from its 102 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Waterford's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 86th percentile nationally.
Waterford's building exposure, zone by zone
USFS classifies 100% of Waterford's buildings as Direct exposure, higher than its 0% Indirect share and far above its 0% Minimal share — a profile where 102 structures sit close enough to vegetation that lot clearing matters most.
How Waterford compares
There's little gap between Waterford's 83rd national percentile and its 86th percentile inside Mississippi, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Waterford ranks 5,260 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 28,956 by building count (1 is largest). Within Mississippi alone, it ranks 61 of 420 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Mississippi on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Waterford
Waterford's 83rd-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.
What would actually reduce this score
With 100% of Waterford 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.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Waterford's 5,260-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Waterford, see the exposure-zones guide.