Katherine’s biggest natural hazard is wildfire
Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Katherine comes from wildfires, and overall the risk is very high for a U.S. community.
What stands out about Katherine’s weather risks
Read from FEMA’s records below. The page puts what stands out first.
Does Katherine flood? No paid flood claims on record
FEMA’s records show no paid flood insurance claims in Katherine. That’s not a promise: most homes don’t carry flood insurance, so small floods go unrecorded.
Katherine isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.
Insurance rates: Mohave County.How exposed is Katherine?
FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings here to be higher than in 83% of U.S. communities, mostly from wildfires and inland flooding.
Rated higher than 265 of the 467 Arizona towns we cover.
Katherine is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.
What Katherine faces
Each hazard’s share of the damage FEMA expects here, and how it compares with the rest of the country.
Wildfire
Inland flooding
Heat waves
Federal disasters declared here
None of the disasters declared for Mohave County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Katherine itself in FEMA’s records.
Mohave County has had 12 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often severe storms and fires.
Get ready for what Katherine actually faces
A short kit for its top hazards, what to check before you buy, and where neighbors get alerts.
- Clear dead leaves and brush within 5 feet of the house.
- Sign up for local alerts and know two ways out.
- Keep N95 masks for smoky days.
- Turn around at flooded roads: a foot of moving water can carry off a car.
- Flood insurance usually takes 30 days to start, so buy it before the forecast.
- Keep papers and medicines up high, in a grab-and-go bag.
- Know the nearest cooling center or air-conditioned library.
- Drink water before you feel thirsty.
- Check on neighbors who live alone.
- Look up the address on FEMA’s flood map.
- Ask the seller or landlord whether it has ever flooded, and what flood insurance costs there.
- Get a flood insurance quote early: policies usually start 30 days after you buy.
Know where neighbors sign up for alerts? Add it to the Handbook so everyone has it.
Most disasters here begin in January–March
The month each of Mohave County’s 12 declared disasters began, since 1953.
What these numbers can and can’t tell you
- An average, not a forecast. FEMA’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 there, so a big city isn’t rated riskier just for having more buildings.
- Money that reached town. Flood claims are matched to Katherine’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to Katherine.
- It follows property value. FEMA’s model weighs damage to buildings, so a place that recently lost many homes can rate lower than it feels.
Storm stories
Memories, warnings and help from neighbors in Katherine.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
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. Preparedness tips: Ready.gov. An average of past damage, not a forecast.