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Poverty, Kentucky

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1908 and the latest in 1991. It stands in the Calhoun census division. It lies in ZIP code area 42327. It stands on Cave Creek. The Survey maps it on the Calhoun quadrangle. It stands 400 feet above sea level.

Poverty within McLean County

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 13 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.

Fires near this place

10 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 10 fires within 5 miles of Poverty between 1999 and 2019, burning about 76 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined5
Equipment and vehicle use1
Debris and open burning1
Arson/incendiarism1
Recreation and ceremony1
Railroad operations and maintenance1

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

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
8 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
8 May 2012Debris and open burningunder an acreKentucky Division of ForestryMILE MARKE
5 March 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined25 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
8 November 2010Railroad operations and maintenance4.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryLAWN MOWER
27 November 1999Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
14 November 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined30 acresKentucky Division of ForestryPASCAL KING RD.
11 November 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresKentucky Division of Forestrynot named
30 October 2010Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresKentucky Division of ForestryBED FIRE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in McLean County

Storms near this place

5 since 2012

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Poverty in 5 storm reports between 2012 and 2025: 2 flood, 2 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
February 2025FloodPoverty$500,000River levels rose into flood following a rainy couple weeks in the Green River basin, with a major rainfall event of nearly half a foot of rain on the 15th leading water levels to surge at Calhoun to major flood. Nearly the entire town of Rumsey sustained some amount of water intrusion. Lower Calhoun flooded as well, along with many thousands of acres in the Island and Jewel City areas. Many homes and businesses along the river had flooding issues develop. River levels remained in moderate flood as flooding continued into March.
January 2012Thunderstorm WindPoverty$60,000Kentucky Highway 256 was closed from Kentucky Highway 140 to the Long Falls Creek bridge due to downed power lines and power poles.
March 2025FloodPoverty-Late February flooding continued into early March along the Green River at Calhoun. Moderate flooding continued through the early afternoon of the 2nd when the river fell below the moderate flood stage of 26'. Thousands of acres remained underwater in the Calhoun, Rumsey, Island, and Jewel City areas, Minor flooding mainly of bottomland then continued until the morning of the 4th when the river fell just below flood stage.
March 2025HailPoverty-Hail up to the size of nickes fell near Poverty.
March 2025HailPoverty-Ping pong ball size hail in Poverty, northwest of Calhoun.

Every storm recorded in McLean 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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Johnson Island1.8 miles13
Mount Vernon1.9 miles13
Glovers (historical)2.3 miles13
Leachman (historical)2.9 miles13
Shutts (historical)3.0 miles13
Lemon3.1 miles14
Mayo Hills (historical)3.6 miles13
Cleopatra3.9 miles13

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 PovertyAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q7235822The 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 508866. 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.