Hancock County, Kentucky · Hawesville
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Lewisport and Hawesville. Start the steps below while you wait.
Answered 24/7 by a participating local provider. We're a referral service and don't do the work ourselves. How it works
Start here
Pick the closest match. These steps limit the damage and protect your insurance claim. Skip anything that isn't safe.
Pipes freeze in Hancock County on about 21 nights a year, mostly November to February. Older homes, 18% of the stock here, are most at risk.
Basements flood here mostly in February. Hancock County averages 13.8 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Hancock County gets about 13.8 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 and, with about 76 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
21% of occupied homes in Hancock County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Kentucky county median of 12.6%.
About 61 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 3,928 homes and around 9,034 residents, Hancock County is 188 square miles of central Kentucky. The county seat is Hawesville, and Lewisport is the other large town. The county's median home was built in 1981.
64/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Hancock County ranks 9 of 120 Kentucky counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Hancock County ranks highest compared with other Kentucky counties.
Hancock is on the colder side of Kentucky for pipes. From 2015–2024 it averaged 21 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 88 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 35th of 120 counties.
On February 20, 2015 the low fell to about -7°F, and in the stretch ending January 2018 the county went 13 days in a row below freezing. Leaks from split pipes typically appear the day the thaw arrives.
Most freezing nights fall from November to February, peaking in January. Disconnect garden hoses and shut off outdoor spigots before the first hard frost, and keep the heat at 55°F or higher if you'll be away.
On average the first fall freeze arrives around Nov 1 and the last spring freeze around Apr 10.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Kentucky. The county gets about 53.6 inches of rain and melted snow a year, with 13.8 days of an inch or more (22nd of 120). Those downpours cluster in February, April and June, when sump pumps and gutters are tested hardest. The wettest day on record brought 3.66 inches on October 28, 2015. Multi-day storms matter most for basements; the wettest three days on record here totaled 4.88 inches (through February 24, 2018).
About 76 days a year swing from below freezing at night to above freezing by day. Those freeze-thaw cycles feed ice dams on roofs, open cracks in foundations and driveways, and stress pipes that are already marginal.
Housing
Kentucky's 120 counties range widely in housing age; Hancock ranks 38th, with 49% of its homes built before 1980.
Housing age is mixed: 18% of homes are pre-1960 and 22% are 2000 or newer. Ask any plumber which era your house is from and you'll know which failures to watch for.
29% 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.
Manufactured and mobile homes make up 22% of the housing here. Water lines in the underbelly depend on intact skirting and working heat tape, and they're usually the first to freeze in a cold snap.
Beyond water
Summer nights that don't drop below 65°F, a good marker of humid air, come about 61 times a year here, close to the Kentucky county median of 59. Mold grows when indoor humidity stays above about 60%, the EPA's ceiling. A basement dehumidifier set to 50% and drying anything wet within 24 to 48 hours prevents most problems.
Mold remediation: what to expectMain heating fuel in Hancock County's occupied homes: 40% utility gas, 38% electric, 15% propane and 6% wood. Wood and propane heat are above the Kentucky norm. Annual chimney and vent inspection, which the NFPA recommends, is one of the most effective fire-prevention habits for these homes.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Hancock County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Breckinridge gets more pipe-freeze nights than Hancock. Daviess County has the oldest housing nearby, with 55% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Hancock | Kentucky median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 18% | 18% | 61 of 120 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 49% | 44% | 38 of 120 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 22% | 25% | 76 of 120 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 22% | 19% | 48 of 120 |
| Vacant homes | 7.4% | 13% | 103 of 120 |
| Wood or propane heat | 21% | 13% | 34 of 120 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 21/yr | 20/yr | 35 of 120 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 14/yr | 12/yr | 22 of 120 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 76/yr | 73/yr | 31 of 120 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 61/yr | 59/yr | 44 of 120 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Kentucky county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Hancock County: freezing from November to February, heavy rain in February, April and June.
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