Natural hazards · Bluffs

Bluffs, IL natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Bluffs comes from inland flooding, and overall the risk is very high for a U.S. community. Flood insurance has paid 8 claims here since 1982.

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

Expected damage

How exposed is Bluffs?

Very high

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Bluffs to be higher than in 92% of U.S. communities, mostly from inland flooding and drought.

Inland flooding39%Drought28%Cold waves12%Strong wind7%Heat waves5%Everything else9%

By hazard

What Bluffs faces

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

Inland flooding

39% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 98% of U.S. places

Recorded about once a year in the area

Drought

28% of expected damage

Recorded about 3 times a year in the area

Cold waves

12% of expected damage

Above average · higher than 56% of U.S. places

Recorded about 3 times a year in the area

Strong wind

7% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 94% of U.S. places

Recorded about 5 times a year in the area

Heat waves

5% of expected damage

Above average · higher than 56% of U.S. places

Recorded about 8 times a year in the area

Lower here

HurricanesTornadoesHailIce stormsWinter weatherWildfireEarthquakesLandslidesLightning

Not a risk here

Coastal floodingAvalanchesTsunamisVolcanic 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 Bluffs flood?

Every paid claim on a federal flood insurance policy in Bluffs, from FEMA’s records.

8paid claims since 1982

$25Kpaid to owners

1homes flooded more than once

19822026

Biggest named events

Hurricane Ike: 1 claim, $2K

Homes that flooded again and again

■ FEMA “severe repetitive loss” (0) ■ flooded 2+ times

of homes in flood zones
are insured

of all homes
are insured

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

Insurance rates: Scott County.

Disasters that hit Bluffs

Federal disasters declared here

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

Brought FEMA money into BluffsDeclared for Scott County only

Scott County has had 15 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often severe storms and floods.

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