Natural hazards · Vilas

Vilas, WI natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Vilas comes from cold waves, 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 Vilas?

Low

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Vilas to be higher than in 25% of U.S. communities, mostly from cold waves and inland flooding.

Cold waves47%Inland flooding37%Tornadoes7%Everything else9%

By hazard

What Vilas faces

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

Cold waves

47% of expected damage

Well below average · higher than 21% of U.S. places

Recorded about 9 times a year in the area

Inland flooding

37% of expected damage

Below average · higher than 47% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 5 years in the area

Tornadoes

7% of expected damage

Above average · higher than 71% of U.S. places

Recorded about once every 15 years in the area

Lower here

HailIce stormsWinter weatherHeat wavesWildfireEarthquakesLandslidesStrong windLightningDrought

Not a risk here

Coastal floodingHurricanesAvalanchesTsunamisVolcanic 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 Vilas flood?

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

of all homes
are insured

No community discount. Vilas isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.

Insurance rates: Langlade County.

Disasters that hit Vilas

Federal disasters declared here

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

Brought FEMA money into VilasDeclared for Langlade County only

Langlade County has had 6 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often floods and tornadoes.

Around Vilas

Vilas and the towns around it

Very lowLowModerateHighVery high

Schleymostly cold wavesLow

Vilasmostly cold wavesLow

Peckmostly cold wavesLow

Ackleymostly cold wavesLow

Summitmostly cold wavesVery 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. Vilas 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 Vilas’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to the Town of Vilas. 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.