Natural hazards · Vilas

Vilas, CO natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Vilas comes from drought, 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 Vilas?

Moderate

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Vilas to be higher than in 49% of U.S. communities, mostly from drought and inland flooding.

Drought26%Inland flooding20%Strong wind17%Cold waves9%Tornadoes8%Lightning6%Everything else14%

By hazard

What Vilas faces

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

Drought

26% of expected damage

Recorded about 92 times a year in the area

Inland flooding

20% of expected damage

Below average · higher than 37% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 3 years in the area

Strong wind

17% of expected damage

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

Recorded about 2 times a year in the area

Cold waves

9% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 83% of U.S. places

Recorded about 2 times a year in the area

Tornadoes

8% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 80% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 4 years in the area

Lightning

6% of expected damage

Below average · higher than 37% of U.S. places

Lower here

Ice stormsWinter weatherHeat wavesEarthquakesLandslides

Not a risk here

Coastal floodingHurricanesAvalanchesTsunamisVolcanic activity

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 Vilas flood?

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

Disasters that hit Vilas

Federal disasters declared here

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

Brought FEMA money into VilasDeclared for Baca County only

Baca County has had 9 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. Vilas 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 Vilas’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to the Town of Vilas. 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.