Natural hazards · Crestone

Crestone, CO natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Crestone comes from inland flooding, and overall the risk is moderate for a U.S. community.

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

Expected damage

How exposed is Crestone?

Moderate

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Crestone to be higher than in 45% of U.S. communities, mostly from inland flooding and avalanches.

Inland flooding40%Avalanches27%Lightning10%Drought7%Landslides5%Everything else11%

By hazard

What Crestone faces

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

Inland flooding

40% of expected damage

Above average · higher than 70% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 4 years in the area

Avalanches

27% of expected damage

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

Recorded about once every 6 years in the area

Lightning

10% of expected damage

Below average · higher than 45% of U.S. places

Drought

7% of expected damage

Recorded about 90 times a year in the area

Landslides

5% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 96% of U.S. places

Lower here

TornadoesHailIce stormsWinter weatherCold wavesHeat wavesWildfireEarthquakesStrong windVolcanic activity

Not a risk here

Coastal floodingHurricanesTsunamis

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 Crestone flood?

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

of all homes
are insured

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

Insurance rates: Saguache County.

Disasters that hit Crestone

Federal disasters declared here

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

Brought FEMA money into CrestoneDeclared for Saguache County only

Saguache County has had 7 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often floods and winter storms.

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