Towaoc’s biggest natural hazard is avalanches
Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Towaoc comes from avalanches, and overall the risk is moderate for a U.S. community.
What stands out about Towaoc’s weather risks
Read from FEMA’s records below. The page puts what stands out first.
What Towaoc 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 Towaoc flood? No paid flood claims on record
FEMA’s records show no paid flood insurance claims in Towaoc. That’s not a promise: most homes don’t carry flood insurance, so small floods go unrecorded.
Towaoc isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.
Insurance rates: Montezuma County.How exposed is Towaoc?
FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings here to be higher than in 54% of U.S. communities, mostly from avalanches and inland flooding.
Calmer than 301 of the 481 Colorado towns we cover.
Towaoc 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 Montezuma County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Towaoc itself in FEMA’s records.
Montezuma County has had 6 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often floods and fires.
Get ready for what Towaoc 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 Towaoc’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to Towaoc.
- 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 Towaoc.
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.