Natural hazards · White Cliffs

White Cliffs, NM natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in White Cliffs comes from inland flooding, 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 White Cliffs?

Low

vs. U.S. communities

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

Inland flooding87%Cold waves8%Everything else5%

By hazard

What White Cliffs faces

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

Inland flooding

87% of expected damage

Above average · higher than 58% of U.S. places

Recorded about once a year in the area

Cold waves

8% of expected damage

Below average · higher than 36% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 19 years in the area

Lower here

TornadoesHailIce stormsWinter weatherHeat wavesWildfireEarthquakesLandslidesStrong windLightning

Not a risk here

Coastal floodingHurricanesDroughtAvalanchesTsunamisVolcanic 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 White Cliffs flood?

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

of homes in flood zones
are insured

of all homes
are insured

No community discount. White Cliffs 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.

Disasters that hit White Cliffs

Federal disasters declared here

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

Brought FEMA money into White CliffsDeclared for McKinley County only

McKinley County has had 8 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often floods and severe storms.

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. White Cliffs is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.

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

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.