Natural hazards · Cayuga Heights

Cayuga Heights, NY natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Cayuga Heights comes from inland flooding, and overall the risk is low for a U.S. community. Flood insurance has paid 3 claims here since 1994.

FEMA National Risk Index, December 2025 · OpenFEMA claims, aid & declarations

Expected damage

How exposed is Cayuga Heights?

Low

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Cayuga Heights to be higher than in 30% of U.S. communities, mostly from inland flooding.

Inland flooding84%Tornadoes6%Everything else9%

By hazard

What Cayuga Heights faces

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

Inland flooding

84% of expected damage

Above average · higher than 60% of U.S. places

Recorded about once a year in the area

Tornadoes

6% of expected damage

Below average · higher than 38% of U.S. places

Lower here

HurricanesHailIce stormsWinter weatherCold wavesHeat wavesWildfireEarthquakesLandslidesStrong windLightningDrought

Not a risk here

Coastal floodingAvalanchesTsunamisVolcanic 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 Cayuga Heights flood?

Every paid claim on a federal flood insurance policy in Cayuga Heights, from FEMA’s records.

3paid claims since 1994

$16Kpaid to owners

0homes flooded more than once

19942026

of all homes
are insured

No community discount. Cayuga 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: Tompkins County.

Disasters that hit Cayuga Heights

Federal disasters declared here

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

Brought FEMA money into Cayuga HeightsDeclared for Tompkins County only

Tompkins County has had 16 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often severe storms and floods.

Around Cayuga Heights

Cayuga Heights and the towns around it

Very lowLowModerateHighVery high

Ithacamostly inland floodingVery high

Ithacamostly inland floodingModerate

Cayuga Heightsmostly inland floodingLow

Lansingmostly inland floodingLow

Lansingmostly inland floodingVery 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. Cayuga Heights 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 Cayuga Heights’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to the Village of Cayuga Heights. 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.