Laurel Heights is calmer than 86% of U.S. communities
Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Laurel Heights comes from inland flooding, and overall the risk is very low for a U.S. community.
What stands out about Laurel Heights’s weather risks
Read from FEMA’s records below. The page puts what stands out first.
How exposed is Laurel Heights?
FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings here to be higher than in 14% of U.S. communities, mostly from inland flooding and hurricanes.
Calmer than 524 of the 564 New Jersey towns we cover.
Laurel Heights is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.
Does Laurel Heights flood? No paid flood claims on record
FEMA’s records show no paid flood insurance claims in Laurel Heights. That’s not a promise: most homes don’t carry flood insurance, so small floods go unrecorded.
Laurel Heights isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.
Insurance rates: Cumberland County.What Laurel Heights 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
Drought
Heat waves
Federal disasters declared here
None of the disasters declared for Cumberland County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Laurel Heights itself in FEMA’s records.
Cumberland County has had 24 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often hurricanes and severe storms.
Get ready for what Laurel Heights 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.
Most disasters here begin in August–October
The month each of Cumberland County’s 24 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 Laurel Heights’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to Laurel Heights.
- 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 Laurel Heights.
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.