Natural hazards · Basalt

Basalt, CO natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Basalt comes from avalanches, and overall the risk is very high for a U.S. community. Flood insurance has paid 3 claims here since 1984.

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

Expected damage

How exposed is Basalt?

Very high

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Basalt to be higher than in 87% of U.S. communities, mostly from avalanches and inland flooding.

Avalanches74%Inland flooding23%Everything else3%

By hazard

What Basalt faces

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

Avalanches

74% of expected damage

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

Recorded about once a year in the area

Inland flooding

23% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 97% of U.S. places

Recorded about once a year in the area

Lower here

TornadoesHailIce stormsWinter weatherCold wavesWildfireEarthquakesLandslidesStrong windLightningDroughtVolcanic activity

Not a risk here

Coastal floodingHurricanesHeat wavesTsunamis

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 Basalt flood?

Every paid claim on a federal flood insurance policy in Basalt, from FEMA’s records.

3paid claims since 1984

$89Kpaid to owners

0homes flooded more than once

19842026

of homes in flood zones
are insured

of all homes
are insured

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

Insurance rates: Eagle County.

Disasters that hit Basalt

Federal disasters declared here

None of the disasters declared for Eagle County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Basalt itself in FEMA’s records.

Brought FEMA money into BasaltDeclared for Eagle County only

Eagle County has had 7 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often fires and floods.

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. Basalt 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 Basalt’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to the Town of Basalt. 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.