Heeney’s biggest natural hazard is avalanches
Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Heeney comes from avalanches, and overall the risk is moderate for a U.S. community.
What stands out about Heeney’s weather risks
Read from FEMA’s records below. The page puts what stands out first.
What Heeney faces
Each hazard’s share of the damage FEMA expects here, and how it compares with the rest of the country.
Avalanches
Inland flooding
Does Heeney flood? No paid flood claims on record
FEMA’s records show no paid flood insurance claims in Heeney. That’s not a promise: most homes don’t carry flood insurance, so small floods go unrecorded.
Heeney isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.
Insurance rates: Summit County.How exposed is Heeney?
FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings here to be higher than in 58% of U.S. communities, mostly from avalanches.
Calmer than 281 of the 481 Colorado towns we cover.
Heeney is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.
Federal disasters declared here
None of the disasters declared for Summit County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Heeney itself in FEMA’s records.
Summit County has had 4 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often floods and winter storms.
Get ready for what Heeney actually faces
A short kit for its top hazards, what to check before you buy, and where neighbors get alerts.
- 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.
- 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.
- Keep a shovel, a blanket and snacks in the car.
- Clear snow from furnace and dryer vents.
- Check on older neighbors when the power goes out.
- 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.
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 Heeney’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to Heeney.
- 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 Heeney.
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.