Devens is calmer than 88% of U.S. communities
Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Devens comes from inland flooding, and overall the risk is very low for a U.S. community.
What stands out about Devens’s weather risks
Read from FEMA’s records below. The page puts what stands out first.
How exposed is Devens?
FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings here to be higher than in 12% of U.S. communities, mostly from inland flooding and hurricanes.
Calmer than 312 of the 351 Massachusetts towns we cover.
Devens is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.
Does Devens flood? No paid flood claims on record
FEMA’s records show no paid flood insurance claims in Devens. That’s not a promise: most homes don’t carry flood insurance, so small floods go unrecorded.
Devens isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.
Insurance rates: Worcester County.What Devens faces
Each hazard’s share of the damage FEMA expects here, and how it compares with the rest of the country.
Inland flooding
Hurricanes
Cold waves
Earthquakes
Federal disasters declared here
None of the disasters declared for Worcester County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Devens itself in FEMA’s records.
Worcester County has had 28 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often hurricanes and severe storms.
Get ready for what Devens actually faces
A short kit for its top hazards, what to check before you buy, and where neighbors get alerts.
- 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.
- The season runs June through November and peaks from mid-August to mid-October.
- Bring in porch furniture and anything the wind can throw.
- Fill the gas tank and charge phones before the storm arrives.
- Let faucets drip so pipes don’t freeze.
- Know where your water shutoff is.
- Never heat the house with the oven or a grill.
- 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.
Devens and its neighbors
Devens ranks 2nd calmest of 5 towns around it. Tap a town to see its hazards.
Rating = expected yearly storm and flood damage as a share of what’s there, vs. U.S. communities. Flood claims = paid federal flood insurance claims on record.
Disasters here can come any time of year
The month each of Worcester County’s 28 declared disasters began, since 1953.
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 Devens’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to Devens.
- 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 Devens.
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.