FEMA Records
3
Low volume
Alaska · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
3 FEMA disaster declarations (2000-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Biological.
The verdict
The declaration register is comparatively quiet for Aleutians East Borough. Its 3 federal records sit 58% below the Alaska county mean and above the count for 1% of counties nationally. That historical total does not set the National Risk Index: FEMA's separate loss-and-vulnerability model ranks the county safer than 21%.
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.
Aleutians East Borough vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
3 1st percentile higher than 1% 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 · 2026-08-03
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Aleutians East Borough is led by Tsunami (about $2.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), while Volcanic Activity carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High). 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.
Aleutians East Borough's federal file is quiet on both comparisons: 3 declarations, 58% below the Alaska county mean. Of those, 2 use the Major Disaster code. The register covers 20 years and averages 0.1 entries a year. Biological is the most frequent incident label at 2. A small federal count does not include undeclared local events and is not evidence of zero hazard exposure.
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 21.3/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $4.1M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Very High social-vulnerability score and Very Low community-resilience score. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Volcanic Activity stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 12 years here, based on 21 historical events on record.
No paid-claim row for this county appears in the NFIP county table used by PlainHazard. That absence is not evidence that flooding never occurred: the register observes claims under federal flood-insurance policies, not uninsured losses, emergency reports, or every flood outside the program. The FEMA declaration history below is therefore the available federal-action record on this page.
Start with the state benchmark: a Alaska county averages 7.2 federal declaration records, while Aleutians East Borough has 3. The gap is 58% below that mean. Fewer entries indicate a quieter history of recorded federal actions, not immunity from a hazard and not a prediction about what happens next.
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Aleutians East Borough, AK · 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
3 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.1x national county average)
3 declarations (0.4x state county average of 7)
2 of 3 declarations are major disasters (67%)
2 different disaster types declared in Aleutians East Borough
Activity Band
Low
vs. Alaska Avg
-58%
State avg: 7.2
vs. National Avg
-86%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.1
Over 20 years
Each axis: NRI risk rating (Very Low-Very High) on a 0-100 scale. Rounder = broad exposure; spiky = one or two hazards dominate.
FEMA Records
3
Low volume
Major Disaster share
67%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
21
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
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. These modeled frequencies are not forecasts.
| Hazard | NRI Risk Rating | Recurrence |
|---|---|---|
| Volcanic Activity | Relatively High | roughly once every 12 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | an average of 28 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Tsunami | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 15 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 6.1 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 69 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 100,000 years |
| Riverine Flooding | No Rating | roughly once every 28 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Biological is the most frequent declaration type on Aleutians East Borough's record, 67% of its declarations. In practice this category is dominated by the COVID-19 declarations of 2020, which were issued across every US state and territory rather than in response to any local hazard event.
This has a direct consequence for how Aleutians East Borough's number should be read. Because those declarations reached essentially every county in the country, they raise every county's total by a similar amount and tell you nothing about local hazard exposure. A county whose record is led by Biological declarations is, in most cases, a county with a genuinely quiet weather-hazard history, the pandemic records are simply the largest thing in an otherwise short list.
Declaration counts describe past federal action. They are a record of what was declared, not a forecast of future hazard probability.
FEMA categorizes declarations as Major Disasters (DR), Emergencies (EM), or Fire Management Assistance (FM).
of all 3 declarations
of all 3 declarations
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
How the 3 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 3 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4533 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-09 |
| 3446 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 1316 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND AVALANCHES | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-02-17 |
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Aleutians East Borough.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 709 | 0 | 1 | $8.4M |
| Blizzard | 524 | 0 | 0 | $60.0K |
| Heavy Snow | 439 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Winter Storm | 385 | 0 | 0 | $200.0K |
| Flood | 182 | 0 | 0 | $81.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 21.3/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$4.1M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) Ratings reflect relative scores among all US counties. Data: hazards.fema.gov/nri
Volcanic Activity is the rarest hazard in the model and the most locally determined. Its modeled exposure follows proximity to specific known systems rather than any regional pattern.
Worth noting for Aleutians East Borough: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Volcanic Activity carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively High), while the county's declaration history is led by Biological. 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
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Aleutians East Borough. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Aleutians East Borough shows 3 FEMA declarations, led by Biological.
Aleutians East Borough: 2 of 3 of its declarations are Major.
Aleutians East Borough: NRI composite 21.3 (Very Low).
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 Aleutians East Borough - capture-dated entries only.
Understanding disaster data
FEMA's National Risk Index flags Volcanic Activity as the top modeled exposure here (Relatively High); the guide explains how that model differs from declaration counts.
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.
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.
What this means for Aleutians East Borough
Against a Alaska county mean of 7 declarations, Aleutians East Borough, AK records 3, or 58% fewer. PlainHazard classifies that historical total as low activity.
A below-average federal record is not a safety guarantee. Use National Weather Service alerts and local emergency-management notices for present conditions, not this historical comparison.
PlainHazard derives this profile from FEMA's Disaster Declarations Summaries and National Risk Index data. The declaration comparison covers 3,266 U.S. counties and county equivalents in this database, refreshed as of 2026-08-03. Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Verify with FEMA → · Verify with FEMA NRI → · Verify with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.