Foraker, Kentucky
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1982. It stands in the Salyersville census division. It lies in ZIP code area 41465. It stands on Cranes Nest Branch. The Survey maps it on the Seitz quadrangle. It stands 892 feet above sea level.
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 13 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1889 USGS Salyersville quadrangle1:125000
- 1891 USGS Salyersville quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1899 USGS Salyersville quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1951 USGS Seitz quadrangle1:24000
- 1957 USGS Jenkins quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Jenkins quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Seitz quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1982 USGS Irvine quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
241 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 241 fires within 5 miles of Foraker between 1997 and 2020, burning about 8,355 acres in total. None started naturally. 43 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 | 107 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 55 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 43 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 33 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 September 2011 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | MIDDLE PUNCHEON |
| 25 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 13 August 2007 | Debris and open burning | 20 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 8 June 2000 | Debris and open burning | 4.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 27 June 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 2.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | GOSE BRANC |
| 1 May 2018 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | COW CRK. CHURCH |
| 9 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 20 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | PUNCHEON CREEK RD |
| 9 April 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 7.0 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | DOWN AROUN |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
15 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Foraker in 15 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 8 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 3 hail, 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1996 | Flash Flood | Foraker | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 2023 | Tornado (EF1) | Foraker | $1,000 | An NWS Survey Team, in conjunction with Magoffin County Emergency Management, confirmed that an EF-1 Tornado touched down on a hillside southwest of Board Tree Rd, crossed the road and then traveled through the holler/drainage along Williams Arnett Cemetery Rd. It then climbed up the adjacent ridgeline before weakening and dissipating. Several structures sustained minor damage, and many trees were snapped or uprooted. |
| April 2015 | Flash Flood | Foraker | $1,000 | About a foot of water was flowing across Hwy 30, making the road impassable. |
| April 2025 | Hail | Foraker | - | Multiple social media videos showed hail falling near Stable Branch Road and KY-30, just north of the Foraker community. Lots of smaller hail was scattered on the ground, but there were also multiple quarter-sized stones visible in the videos. |
| April 2025 | Flash Flood | Foraker | - | Pictures on social media show flood waters overtopping a bridge at the intersection of Highway 30 and 1090, south of the Hendricks Community. |
| May 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Foraker | - | NWS Storm Survey showed large limbs of a tree broken, and all facing toward the path of a tornado -- likely inflow winds into the storm on the outskirts of the tornado. |
| May 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Foraker | - | NWS Storm Survey showed that high winds caused softwood trunks to snap. All trees were facing toward the patch of a tornado - likely due to inflow winds into the storm on the outskirts of the tornado. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Foraker | - | A tree was blown down on Highway 30 near the Magoffin and Breathitt county line. |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Foraker | - | An NWS employee saw a large tree limb that had been broken by the thunderstorm gust front and subsequently fell onto KY-30. |
| May 2019 | Hail | Foraker | - | A trained spotter observed nickel sized hail near Hendricks. |
| June 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Foraker | - | An NWS Employee observed large limbs down along Kentucky Highway 30 southwest of Hendricks. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Foraker | - | Numerous trees and large limbs were blown down near Hendricks. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Foraker | - | Trees were down on Route 1397 and at Crafts Fork off of Hwy 30. |
| May 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Foraker | - | A tree was blown down. |
| May 2011 | Hail | Foraker | - | no account filed |
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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Craft Fork (historical) | 1.0 miles | 13 | |
| Crafts Fork | 1.0 miles | 13 | |
| Fritz | 3.0 miles | 13 | |
| Seitz | 3.0 miles | 13 | |
| Hendricks | 3.5 miles | 14 | |
| Puncheon (historical) | 3.8 miles | 13 | |
| Right Middle Fork (historical) | 4.3 miles | 13 | |
| Carver | 4.8 miles | 14 |
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 Foraker | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q5467178 | 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 508021. 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.
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.







