Rutledge’s biggest natural hazard is heat waves
Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Rutledge comes from heat waves, and overall the risk is moderate for a U.S. community.
What stands out about Rutledge’s weather risks
Read from FEMA’s records below. The page puts what stands out first.
Does Rutledge flood? No paid flood claims on record
FEMA’s records show no paid flood insurance claims in Rutledge. That’s not a promise: most homes don’t carry flood insurance, so small floods go unrecorded.
How exposed is Rutledge?
FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings here to be higher than in 56% of U.S. communities, mostly from heat waves and inland flooding.
Calmer than 842 of the 1,353 Missouri towns we cover.
Rutledge is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.
What Rutledge faces
Each hazard’s share of the damage FEMA expects here, and how it compares with the rest of the country.
Heat waves
Inland flooding
Tornadoes
Drought
Cold waves
Strong wind
Federal disasters declared here
None of the disasters declared for Scotland County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Rutledge itself in FEMA’s records.
Scotland County has had 20 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often severe storms and floods.
Get ready for what Rutledge actually faces
A short kit for its top hazards, what to check before you buy, and where neighbors get alerts.
- Know the nearest cooling center or air-conditioned library.
- Drink water before you feel thirsty.
- Check on neighbors who live alone.
- 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.
- Pick your spot now: the lowest floor, an inside room, no windows.
- A watch means be ready; a warning means take cover now.
- Keep shoes and a flashlight by the bed.
- 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.
Most disasters here begin in April–June
The month each of Scotland County’s 20 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 Rutledge’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to the Town of Rutledge.
- 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 Rutledge.
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.