Natural hazards · Sands

Sands, MI natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Sands comes from cold waves, 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 Sands?

Low

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Sands to be higher than in 31% of U.S. communities, mostly from cold waves and inland flooding.

Cold waves47%Inland flooding33%Hail12%Everything else8%

By hazard

What Sands faces

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

Cold waves

47% of expected damage

Above average · higher than 59% of U.S. places

Recorded about 5 times a year in the area

Inland flooding

33% of expected damage

Below average · higher than 40% of U.S. places

Recorded about once a year in the area

Hail

12% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 97% of U.S. places

Recorded about once a year in the area

Lower here

Coastal floodingTornadoesIce stormsWinter weatherHeat wavesWildfireEarthquakesLandslidesStrong windLightningDrought

Not a risk here

HurricanesAvalanchesTsunamisVolcanic 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 Sands flood?

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

of homes in flood zones
are insured

of all homes
are insured

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

Insurance rates: Marquette County.

Disasters that hit Sands

Federal disasters declared here

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

Brought FEMA money into SandsDeclared for Marquette County only

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

Around Sands

Sands and the towns around it

Very lowLowModerateHighVery high

Chocolaymostly inland floodingLow

Sandsmostly cold wavesLow

Richmondmostly cold wavesLow

Forsythmostly cold wavesLow

Negauneemostly cold wavesVery low

Marquettemostly cold wavesVery 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. Sands covers 1 census tract, combined by population.

Money that reached townFlood claims are matched to Sands’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to the Township of Sands. 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 Sands total about $1.5M 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.