Hartsel’s biggest natural hazard is inland flooding
Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Hartsel comes from inland flooding, and overall the risk is low for a U.S. community.
What stands out about Hartsel’s weather risks
Read from FEMA’s records below. The page puts what stands out first.
Does Hartsel flood? No paid flood claims on record
FEMA’s records show no paid flood insurance claims in Hartsel. That’s not a promise: most homes don’t carry flood insurance, so small floods go unrecorded.
Hartsel isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.
Insurance rates: Park County.How exposed is Hartsel?
FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings here to be higher than in 34% of U.S. communities, mostly from inland flooding.
Calmer than 410 of the 481 Colorado towns we cover.
Hartsel is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.
What Hartsel faces
Each hazard’s share of the damage FEMA expects here, and how it compares with the rest of the country.
Inland flooding
Hail
Avalanches
Lightning
Wildfire
Federal disasters declared here
None of the disasters declared for Park County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Hartsel itself in FEMA’s records.
Park County has had 9 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often fires and floods.
Get ready for what Hartsel actually faces
A short kit for its top hazards, what to check before you buy, and where neighbors get alerts.
- 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.
- Park in a garage or under cover when storms are forecast.
- Stay away from windows while it falls.
- Photograph roof and car damage for your insurer.
- Check the avalanche forecast before heading into the backcountry.
- Carry a beacon, probe and shovel, and know how to use them.
- Most avalanches are set off by the people caught in them.
- 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 April–June
The month each of Park County’s 9 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 Hartsel’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to Hartsel.
- 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 Hartsel.
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.