Natural hazards · Atlas

Atlas, MI natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Atlas comes from inland flooding, and overall the risk is low for a U.S. community. Flood insurance has paid 2 claims here since 2011.

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

Expected damage

How exposed is Atlas?

Low

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Atlas to be higher than in 27% of U.S. communities, mostly from inland flooding and tornadoes.

Inland flooding48%Tornadoes25%Cold waves17%Everything else10%

By hazard

What Atlas faces

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

Inland flooding

48% of expected damage

Below average · higher than 39% of U.S. places

Recorded about once a year in the area

Tornadoes

25% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 88% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 83 years in the area

Cold waves

17% of expected damage

Above average · higher than 54% of U.S. places

Recorded about 3 times a year in the area

Lower here

HurricanesHailIce stormsWinter weatherHeat wavesWildfireEarthquakesLandslidesStrong windLightning

Not a risk here

Coastal floodingDroughtAvalanchesTsunamisVolcanic 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 Atlas flood?

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

2paid claims since 2011

$23Kpaid to owners

0homes flooded more than once

20112026

of homes in flood zones
are insured

of all homes
are insured

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

Insurance rates: Genesee County.

Disasters that hit Atlas

Federal disasters declared here

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

Brought FEMA money into AtlasDeclared for Genesee County only

Genesee County has had 9 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often severe storms and floods.

Around Atlas

Atlas and the towns around it

Very lowLowModerateHighVery high

Davisonmostly inland floodingLow

Atlasmostly inland floodingLow

Hadleymostly inland floodingLow

Grovelandmostly inland floodingVery low

Grand Blancmostly inland floodingVery low

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. Atlas covers 2 census tracts, combined by population.

Money that reached townFlood claims are matched to Atlas’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to the Township of Atlas. FEMA’s model follows property values, so a place that recently lost many homes can rate lower than it feels.

FEMA’s expected losses across Atlas total about $2.6M a year, counting buildings, people and crops.

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.