FEMA Records
21
Above median
Minnesota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Aitkin County, MN
21 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 21
- FEMA declarations
- 18
- Major disasters
- 57
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Aitkin County. Its 21 FEMA declarations are 19% above the Minnesota county mean and exceed the count for 52% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 43%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 43%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 21
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 95
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records; an EM authorizes a narrower set of federal assistance than a DR.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 27001 · Aitkin County 21 declarations · rank 1509/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 21
- MAJOR-HEAVY 86%
- RANK-LOWER #1,509
- PHOTO-FINISH Montgomery
- NRI-LOW 57
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +19%
Nearest declaration peer: Montgomery, IN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Minnesota state profile
Aitkin County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Aitkin County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Aitkin · this county 21
Aitkin · this county
21 declarations
- Atascosa · near 21
Atascosa · near
21 declarations
- Mason · near 21
Mason · near
21 declarations
- Montgomery · near 21
Montgomery · near
21 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Aitkin County carries 21 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1509 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Aitkin County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Aitkin County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Aitkin County
21 Top 48% higher than 52% of 3,266 counties
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more counties. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 · 2026-08-25
Aitkin County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Aitkin County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $10.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Cold Wave carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). EAL and risk score use different inputs; they need not agree.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025 release) - Expected Annual Loss vs composite risk rating by hazard.
What does Aitkin County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 95 paid claims, totaling $754.8K. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $7.9K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Aitkin County's 21 federal records stand 19% above the Minnesota county mean of 17.7. That comparison describes how often federal action was recorded, including any Major Disaster, Emergency, and Fire Management entries shown on this page; it does not convert the count into future probability.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 56.6/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $15.5M in annualized losses), and a Relatively High social-vulnerability profile combined with Very High community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Cold Wave carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 14 times per year here, based on 271 historical events on record.
64 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Aitkin County, MN · PlainHazard-derived composite from federal records
This 0–100 index is an explicit PlainHazard composite from FEMA declaration history only on the county surface (this DB has no county-level NOAA damage row) . It is not FEMA's National Risk Index, not a forecast, and not a safety, insurance, or preparedness rating. Open the calculator · Methodology
FEMA Declarations (1953–present) High
15/30
21 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
15/25
21 declarations (1.2x state county average of 18)
Major Disaster Share Very High
21/25
18 of 21 declarations are major disasters (86%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Aitkin County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Aitkin County
How to read this radar
Each axis: NRI risk rating (Very Low-Very High) on a 0-100 scale. Rounder = broad exposure; spiky = one or two hazards dominate.
Major Disaster share
86%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
57
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Aitkin County?
FEMA's National Risk Index models a historical event count and an annualized frequency for each hazard type. Most hazards are expressed as modeled occurrences per year; FEMA expresses drought and heat-wave frequency as event-days per year. These modeled frequencies are not forecasts.
| Hazard | NRI Risk Rating | Recurrence |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 14 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 2,086 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 30 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 2.3 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 1.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 13 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 1.6 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 18 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 11,765 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 11
Severe Storm 6
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Aitkin County's record, 52% of its declarations. Federal flood declarations cover two mechanisms that behave very differently: riverine flooding, which builds over days as a watershed drains and is usually forecast well in advance, and flash flooding, which can arrive in under an hour from rainfall that fell somewhere upstream.
Flood is also the one hazard class where a second federal dataset exists for the same events. The National Flood Insurance Program records what was actually paid on insured losses, so it measures a narrower thing than the declaration count: uninsured damage, and flooding outside mapped special flood hazard areas, never enters it. Reading the two together is more informative than either alone.
Declaration counts describe past federal action. They are a record of what was declared, not a forecast of future hazard probability.
Declaration Types
What DR / EM / FM mean
FEMA categorizes declarations as Major Disasters (DR), Emergencies (EM), or Fire Management Assistance (FM).
Major Disaster - 18 85.7%
of all 21 declarations
Emergency - 3 14.3%
of all 21 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 1 | |
Show 4 earlier declaration years
| 1972 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
| 1966 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 21 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 21 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4722 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2023-07-19 |
| 4666 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-08-09 |
| 4658 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-07-08 |
| 4531 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-07 |
| 3453 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4390 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2018-09-05 |
| 4069 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2012-07-06 |
| 3242 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1370 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Flood | 2001-05-16 |
| 1283 | SEVERE STORMS, WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-07-28 |
| 1175 | SEVERE FLOODING, HIGH WINDS,SEVERE STORMS | DR | Flood | 1997-04-08 |
| 1116 | FLOODING AND SEVERE STORMS | DR | Flood | 1996-06-01 |
| 1064 | SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS, WINDS, FLOODING, TORNADOES, AND HEAT | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-08-18 |
| 993 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1993-06-11 |
| 582 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1979-04-30 |
| 3013 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1976-06-17 |
| 473 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-07-05 |
| 347 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-08-01 |
| 255 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-04-18 |
| 215 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1966-03-22 |
Show 1 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 188 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1965-04-11 |
Storm Events in Minnesota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Aitkin County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,420 | 13 | 25 | $68.2M |
| Hail | 4,203 | 0 | 0 | $34.5M |
| Extreme Cold/Wind Chill | 1,789 | 7 | 4 | $55.0K |
| Winter Storm | 1,695 | 2 | 17 | $10.0M |
| Heavy Snow | 1,190 | 9 | 14 | $1.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
95
Total Paid
$754.8K
Avg Per Claim
$7.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 56.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$15.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Tornado Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) Ratings reflect relative scores among all US counties. Data: hazards.fema.gov/nri
The model's sharpest exposure here: Cold Wave
Cold Wave measures exposure to extreme cold rather than to snow. Its harm is concentrated in health effects, burst infrastructure and energy demand spikes, and it falls hardest where the building stock and the grid were not built with sustained cold in mind.
Worth noting for Aitkin County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), while the county's declaration history is led by Flood. That is not a contradiction, the two measure genuinely different things. Declarations record federal ACTION, which requires damage costly enough to exceed state and local capacity; the Risk Index models EXPECTED annual loss across all 18 hazards whether or not any declaration ever followed. A hazard can be the county's largest modeled exposure and never once have driven a declaration.
National Risk Index ratings are modeled estimates of expected annual loss, not predictions of what will happen in any given year.
Data-matched county comparisons
Aitkin County's closest FEMA peer: Kingman County, KS
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Aitkin County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Aitkin County shows 21 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Aitkin County: 18 of 21 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Aitkin County: NRI composite 56.6 (Relatively Low).
How these peers are chosen
Cohort: Published U.S. county equivalents outside the source state or territory. Each metric keeps six ETL candidates; three unique destinations are shown after de-duplicating across axes. Declaration-volume ranking combines count and Major-disaster share and prefers a different leading incident type; Major-share ranks the Major fraction adjusted for volume; NRI ranks the modeled composite score only.
Retained FEMA snapshot feed for Aitkin County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Aitkin County: nearest out-of-state National Risk Index composite and nearest FEMA declaration count (floor ≥5 records). Record similarity only, not a forecast of the next hazard.
Similar NRI composite
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA NRI score. This county: 56.6 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 21. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Aitkin County's NFIP claims file (95 claims) and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records - this guide separates them from modeled NRI risk.
More PlainHazard guides
- Most disaster-prone counties - U.S. counties ranked by FEMA declaration totals.
- Understanding disaster data - declarations vs storm events vs NRI scores.
- Preparing for natural disasters - household checklist (not county-specific advice).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Aitkin County?
The most common disaster type in Aitkin County is Flood, with 11 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (6), Biological (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Aitkin County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Minnesota average?
FEMA lists 21 declaration records for Aitkin County. That is 19% above the Minnesota county mean of 17.7. Its count is also 1% above the national county mean of 20.7. A larger declaration history records more federal actions; it is not a forecast of the county's next hazard.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Aitkin County received?
Aitkin County has received 18 major disaster declarations, representing 86% of all 21 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Aitkin County filed?
Aitkin County has 95 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $754.8K in payments, with an average of $7.9K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Aitkin County?
No. In Aitkin County, Cold Wave has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $10.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Aitkin County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Aitkin County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Aitkin County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Aitkin County, Minnesota has an overall risk score of 56.6 out of 100 (Relatively Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively High, while community resilience comes in at Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $15.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Aitkin County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Aitkin County as of the latest release is Cold Wave (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Landslide (Relatively Low) and Riverine Flooding (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 14 times per year, drawn from 271 historical events on record. These scores are based on FEMA's analysis of historical event frequency, exposed assets, and community vulnerability.
Data Sources & Methodology
Disaster declaration data comes from the FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 API, which includes all federally declared disasters, emergencies, and fire management assistance grants.
Storm event data is sourced from the NOAA Storm Events Database (2015-2025), which tracks significant weather events including thunderstorms, tornadoes, floods, and winter storms.
Flood insurance data comes from the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA claims dataset.
This data is provided for informational purposes only. FEMA disaster declarations represent federal response actions and may not capture all local emergencies or weather events.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Aitkin County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Minnesota profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events