Natural hazards · Stearns

Stearns, KY natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Stearns comes from inland flooding, and overall the risk is low for a U.S. community.

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

Expected damage

How exposed is Stearns?

Low

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Stearns to be higher than in 23% of U.S. communities, mostly from inland flooding and cold waves.

Inland flooding32%Cold waves23%Tornadoes15%Strong wind9%Everything else21%

By hazard

What Stearns faces

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

Inland flooding

32% of expected damage

Well below average · higher than 21% of U.S. places

Recorded about once a year in the area

Cold waves

23% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 75% of U.S. places

Recorded about once a year in the area

Tornadoes

15% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 76% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 79 years in the area

Strong wind

9% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 92% of U.S. places

Recorded about 6 times a year in the area

Lower here

HurricanesHailIce stormsWinter weatherHeat wavesWildfireEarthquakesLandslidesLightningAvalanches

Not a risk here

Coastal floodingDroughtTsunamisVolcanic 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 Stearns flood?

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

of homes in flood zones
are insured

of all homes
are insured

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

Insurance rates: McCreary County.

Disasters that hit Stearns

Federal disasters declared here

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

Brought FEMA money into StearnsDeclared for McCreary County only

McCreary County has had 19 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often severe storms 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. Stearns 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 Stearns’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to Stearns. 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.