Le Flore County, Oklahoma · Poteau
Water spreading, a burst pipe, sewage, mold or smoke? Call to be connected with a restoration company that serves Poteau, Pocola and Heavener. 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.
Le Flore County averages 9 nights a year at 20°F or colder, mostly December to February, and 17% of its homes predate 1960.
Heavy rain days of an inch or more come about 17.4 times a year here, most often in May. A sump pump that hasn't run since last season is a common weak point.
Backups often follow heavy rain, which Le Flore County gets about 17.4 days a year, when storm water overloads sewer mains and pushes up through the lowest drain in the house.
In Le Flore County, 6.17 inches fell on the wettest day of the 2015–2024 record. Storms like that, and ice dams in snowy winters, cause most roof leaks.
13% of occupied homes in Le Flore County heat mainly with wood or propane, close to the Oklahoma county median of 12.5%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 100 times a year in Le Flore County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
With 21,249 homes and around 49,053 residents, Le Flore County is 1,589 square miles of eastern Oklahoma. Besides Poteau, the county seat, the biggest communities are Pocola, Heavener and Spiro. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 1985.
47/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Elevated Le Flore County ranks 49 of 77 Oklahoma counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Le Flore County ranks highest compared with other Oklahoma counties.
Winters here are on the gentler end for Oklahoma, and pipes still freeze. From 2015–2024 it averaged 9 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 60 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 58th of 77 counties.
The longest cold spell was straight 8 days without the temperature rising above freezing, ending in February 2021. The coldest night reached about -8°F on February 16, 2021. Burst pipes usually show up when a spell like that breaks and the ice thaws.
Expect the hardest freezes in January, inside a season that runs December to February. That's when an outdoor spigot left connected to a hose, or a pipe in a crawl space, is most likely to split.
Freezing nights typically start around Nov 7 and end around Mar 28.
Heavy rain is a bigger factor here than in most of Oklahoma. Of roughly 56.1 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 17.4 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 2nd of 77. April, May and October see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 6.17 inches, December 28, 2015. The worst three-day stretch dropped 8.66 inches, ending December 28, 2015, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
Freeze-thaw days, below freezing overnight and above it by afternoon, come about 57 times a year here. They're the main driver of ice dams and of water working its way through foundation cracks in late winter.
Housing
Roughly 43% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Le Flore among the newer housing stocks of Oklahoma's 77 counties.
Older and newer homes sit side by side here: 17% predate 1960 and 26% are from 2000 or later. Corroded pipe is the typical failure in the first group, burst supply hoses in the second.
32% 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.
17% of homes are manufactured or mobile homes, above the Oklahoma county median of 12.3%. 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.
Beyond water
Summer nights that don't drop below 65°F, a good marker of humid air, come about 100 times a year here, close to the Oklahoma county median of 98. 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 expectBy main heating fuel, Le Flore County homes break down as 31% utility gas, 56% electric, 9% propane and 4% wood. Wood heat is above the Oklahoma 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 Le Flore County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Sequoyah gets more pipe-freeze nights than Le Flore. Pushmataha County has the oldest housing nearby, with 46% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Le Flore | Oklahoma median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 17% | 24% | 58 of 77 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 43% | 55% | 65 of 77 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 26% | 22% | 25 of 77 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 17% | 12% | 19 of 77 |
| Vacant homes | 15% | 17% | 49 of 77 |
| Wood or propane heat | 13% | 13% | 42 of 77 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 9/yr | 13/yr | 58 of 77 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 17/yr | 11/yr | 2 of 77 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 57/yr | 65/yr | 53 of 77 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 100/yr | 98/yr | 31 of 77 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Oklahoma county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Le Flore County: freezing from December to February, heavy rain in April, May 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