Natural hazards · Hughes

Hughes, AK natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Hughes comes from cold waves, and overall the risk is moderate for a U.S. community. 2 federal disasters brought FEMA money into town.

FEMA National Risk Index, December 2025 · OpenFEMA claims, aid & declarations

Expected damage

How exposed is Hughes?

Moderate

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Hughes to be higher than in 56% of U.S. communities, mostly from cold waves and avalanches.

Cold waves60%Avalanches16%Wildfire13%Inland flooding5%Everything else6%

By hazard

What Hughes faces

Each hazard’s share of the damage FEMA expects here, and how that compares with the rest of the country.

Cold waves

60% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 87% of U.S. places

Recorded about 3 times a year in the area

Avalanches

16% of expected damage

Well below average · higher than 0% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 30 years in the area

Wildfire

13% of expected damage

Well above average · among the top 1% of U.S. places

Inland flooding

5% of expected damage

Well below average · higher than 5% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 100 years in the area

Lower here

TornadoesIce stormsWinter weatherEarthquakesLandslidesLightning

Not a risk here

Coastal floodingHurricanesHailHeat wavesStrong windDroughtTsunamisVolcanic activity

Flood risk changes street by street. Check a specific address on FEMA’s flood map, and ask about flood insurance before you buy.

Flood insurance claims

Does Hughes flood?

FEMA's records show no paid flood insurance claims in Hughes.

of all homes
are insured

No community discount. Hughes isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.

Insurance rates: Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area.

What’s been done with FEMA grants

3homes raised above flood level

Disasters that hit Hughes

2 federal disasters brought FEMA money here

Disasters the President declared that paid out in Hughes itself: aid to households, or repair grants to the City of Hughes.

Brought FEMA money into HughesDeclared for Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area only

2013

Flooding

9 households applied for aid $51K aid approved $21K to the City of Hughes for repairs

2006

Snow Melt and Ice Jam Flooding

$41K to the City of Hughes for repairs

Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area has had 17 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often floods and fires.

About these numbers

How to read this page

An average, not a forecastFEMA’s National Risk Index estimates the damage 18 kinds of natural hazards cause in a typical year, from decades of records and models. A quiet decade can follow a bad year.

Compared by rate“Higher than N%” compares yearly damage as a share of what’s here, so a big city isn’t rated riskier just for having more buildings. Hughes is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.

Money that reached townFlood claims are matched to Hughes’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to the City of Hughes. FEMA’s model follows property values, so a place that recently lost many homes can rate lower than it feels.

Sources: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025); OpenFEMA: NFIP redacted claims, multiple-loss properties, community status book and residential penetration rates, housing assistance (owners and renters), public assistance funded projects, hazard mitigation properties and disaster declarations. Census tracts: U.S. Census Bureau.