Borrego Pass’s biggest natural hazard is inland flooding
Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Borrego Pass comes from inland flooding, and overall the risk is low for a U.S. community.
What stands out about Borrego Pass’s weather risks
Read from FEMA’s records below. The page puts what stands out first.
Does Borrego Pass flood? No paid flood claims on record
FEMA’s records show no paid flood insurance claims in Borrego Pass. That’s not a promise: most homes don’t carry flood insurance, so small floods go unrecorded.
Borrego Pass isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.
Insurance rates: McKinley County.How exposed is Borrego Pass?
FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings here to be higher than in 35% of U.S. communities, mostly from inland flooding and cold waves.
Calmer than 465 of the 528 New Mexico towns we cover.
Borrego Pass is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.
What Borrego Pass faces
Each hazard’s share of the damage FEMA expects here, and how it compares with the rest of the country.
Inland flooding
Cold waves
Federal disasters declared here
None of the disasters declared for McKinley County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Borrego Pass itself in FEMA’s records.
McKinley County has had 8 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often floods and severe storms.
Get ready for what Borrego Pass 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.
- Let faucets drip so pipes don’t freeze.
- Know where your water shutoff is.
- Never heat the house with the oven or a grill.
- Keep a shovel, a blanket and snacks in the car.
- Clear snow from furnace and dryer vents.
- Check on older neighbors when the power goes out.
- 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 July–September
The month each of McKinley County’s 8 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 Borrego Pass’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to Borrego Pass.
- 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 Borrego Pass.
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.