Butte Valley’s biggest natural hazard is wildfire
Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Butte Valley comes from wildfires, and overall the risk is high for a U.S. community. 2 federal disasters brought FEMA money into town.
What stands out about Butte Valley’s weather risks
Read from FEMA’s records below. The page puts what stands out first.
Does Butte Valley flood? No paid flood claims on record
FEMA’s records show no paid flood insurance claims in Butte Valley. That’s not a promise: most homes don’t carry flood insurance, so small floods go unrecorded.
Butte Valley isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.
Insurance rates: Butte County.How exposed is Butte Valley?
FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings here to be higher than in 72% of U.S. communities, mostly from wildfires and earthquakes.
Calmer than 1,352 of the 1,619 California towns we cover.
Butte Valley is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.
What Butte Valley faces
Each hazard’s share of the damage FEMA expects here, and how it compares with the rest of the country.
Wildfire
Earthquakes
Inland flooding
2 federal disasters brought FEMA money to Butte Valley
Disasters that paid out in Butte Valley itself (aid to households or repair grants to Butte Valley) and its biggest flood years.
- 2020Wildfires10 households applied for aid
- 2018Wildfires11 households applied for aid$10K aid approved
Butte County has had 33 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often fires and severe storms.
Old photos of Butte Valley after a storm or flood belong in the town’s history. Add one, or share what you remember below.
Add to the Butte Valley archive →Get ready for what Butte Valley 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.
- Drop, cover and hold on.
- Strap tall furniture and the water heater to the wall.
- Know how to shut off the gas.
- 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.
- 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 December–February
The month each of Butte County’s 33 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 Butte Valley’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to Butte Valley.
- 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 Butte Valley.
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.