Cattaraugus County, New York · Little Valley
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Olean, Salamanca and Gowanda. 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.
With 50% of homes built before 1960 and about 58 hard-freeze nights a year, frozen and split pipes are a leading winter risk in the county.
Basements flood here mostly in July. Cattaraugus County averages 5 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
50% of homes here predate 1960, when clay and cast iron sewer laterals were standard. Roots and cracks in those lines are a common cause of backups.
Cattaraugus County's wettest day in the 2015–2024 record brought 2.59 inches, and about 104 freeze-thaw days a year mean ice dams in some winters.
24% of occupied homes in Cattaraugus County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the New York county median of 19%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 5 times a year in Cattaraugus County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
Cattaraugus County covers 1,308 square miles of western New York, with about 76,145 residents and 40,356 homes. Little Valley is the county seat; Olean, Salamanca and Gowanda are the next largest communities. Half the homes here were built before 1960, half after.
52/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Cattaraugus County ranks 26 of 57 New York counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Cattaraugus County ranks highest compared with other New York counties.
Pipe-freeze risk in Cattaraugus County sits near the middle of the state. It averaged 147 freezing nights a year over 2015–2024, 58 of them at 20°F or colder, cold enough for pipes in outside walls and crawl spaces to freeze. Among 57 New York counties that's 23rd.
The longest cold spell was straight 19 days without the temperature rising above freezing, ending in March 2015. The coldest night reached about -22°F on February 16, 2015. Burst pipes usually show up when a spell like that breaks and the ice thaws.
Most freezing nights fall from November to April, 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.
Freezing nights typically start around Oct 15 and end around May 10.
Rainfall is about average for New York. About 5 days a year bring an inch or more (33rd of 57), most often in July, out of 45.7 inches of total precipitation. On November 12, 2022, 2.59 inches fell in a single day. The worst three-day stretch dropped 3.43 inches, ending October 22, 2016, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
About 104 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
69% of homes in Cattaraugus County predate 1980, close to the New York county median of 66.8%, which ranks 21st of New York's 57 counties.
Before 1960 is when 50% of these homes went up. Galvanized supply lines and cast iron drains were standard then, and after 60-plus years both corrode and crack, often out of sight inside a wall or under a slab.
Manufactured and mobile homes make up 11% 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.
With 21% of homes empty at survey time, landlords and seasonal owners should shut off the main or schedule checks in winter. An unheated vacant house is also where many policies limit freeze coverage.
Beyond water
Cattaraugus County averages 5 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in October. 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 Cattaraugus County's occupied homes: 53% utility gas, 15% electric, 15% propane and 8% wood. Wood heat is more common here than in most New York counties. Heating equipment is one of the leading causes of home fires nationally, and the NFPA recommends having chimneys and vents inspected every year.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Cattaraugus County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Allegany gets more pipe-freeze nights than Cattaraugus. It also has the most heavy-rain days in its area. Chautauqua County has the oldest housing nearby, with 77% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Cattaraugus | New York median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 50% | 45% | 18 of 57 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 69% | 67% | 21 of 57 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 11% | 13% | 42 of 57 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 11% | 7.6% | 13 of 57 |
| Vacant homes | 21% | 14% | 15 of 57 |
| Wood or propane heat | 24% | 19% | 22 of 57 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 58/yr | 55/yr | 23 of 57 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 5/yr | 6/yr | 33 of 57 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 104/yr | 101/yr | 14 of 57 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 5/yr | 12/yr | 47 of 57 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest New York county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Cattaraugus County: freezing from November to April, heavy rain in June, July and October.
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