Natural hazards · Crested Butte

Crested Butte, CO natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Crested Butte comes from avalanches, and overall the risk is moderate for a U.S. community. Flood insurance has paid 2 claims here since 1979.

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

Expected damage

How exposed is Crested Butte?

Moderate

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Crested Butte to be higher than in 59% of U.S. communities, mostly from avalanches and inland flooding.

Avalanches68%Inland flooding28%Everything else4%

By hazard

What Crested Butte faces

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

Avalanches

68% of expected damage

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

Recorded about once a year in the area

Inland flooding

28% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 84% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 2 years in the area

Lower here

TornadoesHailIce stormsWinter weatherCold wavesWildfireEarthquakesLandslidesStrong windLightningVolcanic activity

Not a risk here

Coastal floodingHurricanesHeat wavesDroughtTsunamis

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 Crested Butte flood?

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

2paid claims since 1979

$1Kpaid to owners

0homes flooded more than once

19792026

of homes in flood zones
are insured

of all homes
are insured

🏷️ 20% off flood insurance. Crested Butte is in FEMA’s Community Rating System (class 6) for its flood-proofing work.

Insurance rates: Gunnison County.

Disasters that hit Crested Butte

Federal disasters declared here

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

Brought FEMA money into Crested ButteDeclared for Gunnison County only

Gunnison County has had 7 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. Crested Butte 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 Crested Butte’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to the Town of Crested Butte. 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.