Ben Hill County, Georgia · Fitzgerald
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Ben Hill County averages 0 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly midwinter, and 20% of its homes predate 1960.
Basements flood here mostly in January. Ben Hill County averages 10.5 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Ben Hill County gets about 10.5 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
Roof leaks here come from summer downpours. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
4% of occupied homes in Ben Hill County heat mainly with wood or propane, below the Georgia county median of 7.1%.
About 132 nights a year here stay at 65°F or warmer, so basements and crawl spaces can grow mold even without a leak.
Local risk profile
With 8,141 homes and around 17,089 residents, Ben Hill County is 250 square miles of southern Georgia. Fitzgerald is the county seat. The county's median home was built in 1981.
41/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Ben Hill County ranks 122 of 159 Georgia counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Ben Hill County ranks highest compared with other Georgia counties.
Ben Hill County is milder than most of Georgia, but not mild enough to skip winterizing. It averaged 16 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 0 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 159 Georgia counties that's 117th.
With only about 16 freezing nights a year, many homes here aren't built for cold, so a single arctic outbreak can burst pipes across the county. The record low in this data was about 17°F, on December 24, 2022.
Ben Hill gets fewer downpours than most Georgia counties, but they still fill basements. The county gets about 50.1 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 10.5 days of an inch or more (136th of 159). Those downpours cluster in January, February and December, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 4.51 inches on September 27, 2024. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 6.75 inches (through September 28, 2024).
Housing
49% of homes in Ben Hill County predate 1980, above the Georgia county median of 38.4%, which ranks 29th of Georgia's 159 counties.
20% were built before 1960. Homes from that era often still have galvanized steel supply pipe, which rusts from the inside until it pinholes, and cast iron drains that crack with age. Slow leaks behind walls are a common start to water damage in these houses.
30% date from 1980 to 1999, the window when polybutylene, a gray flexible plastic supply pipe, was used in some homes. It's prone to leaks at the fittings, so it's worth checking for in a house from those years.
21% of homes are manufactured or mobile homes, close to the Georgia county median of 20.9%. Their water lines run under the floor behind the skirting, so a torn skirt or failed heat tape freezes them faster than lines in a site-built house.
Renters occupy 37% of homes. If you rent, the building is usually the landlord's to repair, but your belongings are only covered by renters insurance.
Beyond water
About 132 nights a year in Ben Hill County stay at 65°F or warmer, a sign of muggy summer air (33rd of 159 counties). June is the wettest month. Keep indoor humidity under 60%, as the EPA advises, and dry any leak within 24 to 48 hours; in a humid month a wet basement left alone won't dry by itself.
Mold remediation: what to expectMain heating fuel in Ben Hill County's occupied homes: 11% utility gas, 83% electric, 3% propane and 1% wood. Heating equipment, cooking and electrical failures cause most home fires nationally. Even a small kitchen fire can leave soot through the whole house, because smoke follows air currents into closets, ducts and attic space.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Ben Hill County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Turner and Wilcox get more pipe-freeze nights than Ben Hill. Turner County has the oldest housing nearby, with 54% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Ben Hill | Georgia median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 20% | 15% | 45 of 159 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 49% | 38% | 29 of 159 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 21% | 27% | 112 of 159 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 21% | 21% | 80 of 159 |
| Vacant homes | 13% | 14% | 91 of 159 |
| Wood or propane heat | 3.9% | 7.1% | 105 of 159 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 0/yr | 2/yr | 117 of 159 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 11/yr | 12/yr | 136 of 159 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 16/yr | 29/yr | 128 of 159 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 132/yr | 112/yr | 33 of 159 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Georgia county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Ben Hill County: freezing from midwinter, heavy rain in January, February and December.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year estimates (2020-2024); weather from NOAA nClimGrid-Daily county averages (EpiNOAA), 2015–2024, averaged across the county; county boundaries from Census TIGER. Reviewed 2026-10-21. Methodology