Waynesboro, GA
How exposed is Waynesboro to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Waynesboro at the 63rd national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 2,540 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Waynesboro's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 63rd percentile nationally.
Where Waynesboro's buildings actually sit
Most of Waynesboro's buildings (70.2%) sit in the Indirect zone, where wind-blown embers rather than flame front are the mechanism USFS is scoring — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing are the interventions this pattern favors, more than defensible space alone.
How Waynesboro compares
Waynesboro's 63rd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 32nd ranking inside Georgia does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 31 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Waynesboro ranks 11,625 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,225 by building count (1 is largest). Within Georgia alone, it ranks 453 of 669 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Georgia on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Waynesboro's 63rd-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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Because 70.2% of Waynesboro'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.
Where Waynesboro's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 2,540 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Waynesboro. The exposure-zones guide covers what Waynesboro's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.