Brent, Alabama

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 2002. It stands in the Centreville-Brent census division. It lies in ZIP code area 35034. It stands on Cooper Pasture Branch. The Survey maps it on the Centreville West quadrangle. 2,972 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 240 feet above sea level.

Brent within Bibb County

On record in Brent

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

Surveyed buildings and structures 1 record

Olon Belcher Lumber Mill, Highway 25 South, Brentfederal building survey, 10 photographs

Population over time

2 figures

Brent fell from 4,947 to 2,972 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Year	People	Change
2010	4,947
2020	2,972	-1,975 (-40%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 11 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1953 USGS Montgomery quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
1956 USGS Montgomery quadrangle1:250000
1957 USGS Montgomery quadrangle1:250000
1980 USGS Centreville West quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1986 USGS Demopolis quadrangle1:100000
1990 USGS Demopolis quadrangle1:100000
2002 USGS Centreville West quadrangle1:24000

Photographs

1 photograph,

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

Olon Belcher Lumber Mill, Highway 25 South, Brent, Bibb County, AL
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress

Fires near this place

149 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 149 fires within 5 miles of Brent between 1992 and 2016, burning about 932 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 30 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	44
Arson/incendiarism	30
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	23
Recreation and ceremony	14
Smoking	12
Equipment and vehicle use	8
Misuse of fire by a minor	7
Natural	4
Railroad operations and maintenance	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Fireworks	1
Other causes	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2008	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Alabama Forestry Commission	3842 SELMA ROAD - CENTREVILLE, AL
9 September 2002	Smoking	1.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
7 September 1995	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
6 September 1999	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
6 September 1999	Natural	1.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
28 September 2000	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
20 September 2000	Smoking	under an acre	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named
2 September 1995	Recreation and ceremony	4.0 acres	Alabama Forestry Commission	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Bibb County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Brent: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Kaolin. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Forestry Service Pit	Kaolin	Producer

Every working recorded in Bibb County

Storms near this place

22 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Brent in 22 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 10 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood. The reports record 2 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
March 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Brent	2 hurt, $500,000	A mobile home in the Brent area was destroyed by thunderstorm wind. Two barns in the Ridgeville community, about two miles southwest of Brent, had roof damage and a number of trees were blown down in the area.
September 2009	Flash Flood	Brent	$100,000	Several businesses and other buildings along Main Street in the city of Brent sustained significant water damage after a storm drain failed to keep up with flooding rains. The buildings included a building supply company, a services building for the elderly, and a church.
May 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Brent	$75,000	Numerous trees were blown down in and around Brent. Three mobile homes were severely damaged by falling trees. One of these mobile homes was destroyed. One tree landed on a business. No injuries were reported.
February 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Brent	$45,000	Damaging wind with a thunderstorm downed a number of trees and powerlines on SR 5 in an area about 6 miles southwest of Brent. A couple of mobile homes were damaged and one house sustained roof damage when a tree fell on it.
May 1998	Hail	Brent	$40,000	no account filed
May 1998	Hail	Brent	$10,000	Golf ball size hail was reported in Brent.
February 2007	Hail	Brent	$5,000	Reported on US-82 in western Bibb County. Several vehicles were dented and damaged.
May 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Brent	$5,000	A few trees and power lines were blown down in Brent. One telephone pole fell on a home causing damage. No injuries were reported.
April 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Brent	$4,000	Several trees were blown down along Bear Creek Road with minor roof damage to a home.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Brent	$3,000	Two large trees were blown down in Brent. One tree fell onto a home, causing minor damage.
April 2005	Hail	Brent	$1,000	Dime to penny size hail was reported in and around Brent and Centreville.
May 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Brent	-	Trees were knocked down along Bear Creek Rd in Brent.
August 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Brent	-	A few trees were blown down around Brent.
September 2012	Flash Flood	Brent	-	Several roads in the Brent and Centerville area were impassable due to over 6 inches of flowing water completely covering the roadways. These roads included Highway 5 in Brent and Four Points; and Heritage Road, Park Drive and Patrige Drive in Centerville. Bibb Supply and Valley Foods suffered water damage due to the flash flooding.
April 2007	Hail	Brent	-	Reported near the courthouse in Brent.
April 2004	Hail	Brent	-	Penny size hail was observed in the Brent and Centreville areas. In some locations, the hail covered the ground.
April 2002	Hail	Brent	-	Dime to golf ball size hail was reported in extreme southwest Bibb County near the National Forest.
June 1998	Hail	Brent	-	Dime size hail was reported just west of Brent by storm spotters.
May 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Brent	-	Quarter-size hail was reported. A wind gust to 58 miles an hour was recorded at the National Weather Service Office located five miles southwest of Brent.
June 1994	Hail	Brent	-	Quarter-size hail was reported at Brent. The roof was blown off a barn near the intersection of County Road 1 and U.S. 82.
June 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Brent	-	Trees were downed on Highway 5 near the National Weather Service Centreville radar office.
April 2006	Hail	Brent	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Bibb County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Zulu	1.0 miles	11
Fairdale	1.1 miles	11
West Centreville	1.3 miles	11
Centreville	1.5 miles	11
Jamesville	1.5 miles	11
East Centreville	1.6 miles	11
East Town	1.8 miles	11
Goodson	1.9 miles	11

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Brent	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q79770	The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 159248. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.