Young Harris, GA
How exposed is Young Harris to wildfire?
Young Harris sits at the 80th percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 268 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Young Harris at the 83rd percentile, close to its 80th-percentile risk score.
Where Young Harris's buildings actually sit
Of Young Harris's 268 counted buildings, 63.4% carry Direct exposure and only 0% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Where Young Harris ranks
There's little gap between Young Harris's 80th national percentile and its 92nd percentile inside Georgia, which means the state comparison mostly confirms what the national score already shows. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Young Harris ranks 6,174 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 22,560 by building count (1 is largest). Within Georgia alone, it ranks 57 of 669 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Georgia on its state page.
Shopping for coverage in Young Harris
Young Harris's 80th-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
Because Direct exposure dominates in Young Harris (63.4%), the highest-leverage fix is defensible space, not roofing or vents alone — covered in the home-hardening guide.
Where Young Harris's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 268 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Young Harris. The exposure-zones guide covers what Young Harris's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.