Whitney, NE
Whitney wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Whitney at the 70th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (well above the national norm for wildfire risk), a figure built from 82 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 Whitney at the 69th percentile, close to its 70th-percentile risk score.
Whitney's building exposure, zone by zone
Most of Whitney's buildings (80.5% of 82) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure.
Where Whitney ranks
Whitney scores 70th nationally and 69th within Nebraska — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Whitney ranks 9,392 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 29,813 by building count (1 is largest). Within Nebraska alone, it ranks 179 of 583 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Nebraska on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Whitney
Whitney's high rating (70th percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
Hardening a home in Whitney
Even with 80.5% of Whitney outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones, basic hardening — gutter maintenance, ember-resistant vents — is inexpensive relative to the regional burn-probability risk noted above. Details in the home-hardening guide.
Where Whitney's figures come from
Every one of the two percentiles behind Whitney's 9,392-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Whitney's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.