FEMA Records
11
Low volume
Oregon · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Baker County, OR
11 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 11
- FEMA declarations
- 4
- Major disasters
- 48
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Baker County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 11 declarations, more than 12% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 34% below the Oregon county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 48%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 48%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 11
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 4
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Fire Management Assistance (FM) records, which are not presidential disaster declarations, alongside Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 41001 · Baker County 11 declarations · rank 2846/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 11
- MAJOR-LIGHT 36%
- RANK-LOWER #2,846
- PHOTO-FINISH Meeker
- NRI-LOW 48
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-BELOW -34%
Nearest declaration peer: Meeker, MN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Oregon state profile
Baker County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Baker County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Baker · this county 11
Baker · this county
11 declarations
- Davis · near 11
Davis · near
11 declarations
- Meeker · near 11
Meeker · near
11 declarations
- Wasatch · near 11
Wasatch · near
11 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Baker County carries 11 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2846 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Baker County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Baker County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Baker County
11 12th percentile higher than 12% 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
Baker County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Baker County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $4.9M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), while Wildfire 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 Baker County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 48.2/100 for this county (Relatively Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $12.2M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively High) and community resilience (Relatively Moderate) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Wildfire carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 170 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 4 claims and $4.7K paid in total. PlainHazard calls 1-49 claims a light registry record, a label for this dataset rather than a finding that flood exposure is low. A short claims history can also reflect insurance take-up, the period covered, or losses that were never insured.
Start with the state benchmark: a Oregon county averages 16.6 federal declaration records, while Baker County has 11. The gap is 34% 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.
40 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Baker County, OR · 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) Moderate
8/30
11 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.5x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
8/25
11 declarations (0.7x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
9/25
4 of 11 declarations are major disasters (36%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Baker County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Baker 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
36%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
48
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Baker 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 170 years |
| Avalanche | Relatively High | roughly once every 15 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | an average of 1.8 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 206 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 14 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 3.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 21 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 2,500 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 19 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 56 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 12 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 4
Biological 2
Severe Storm 2
Coastal Storm 1
Drought 1
Flood 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Baker County's record, 36% of its declarations. Wildfire is the one hazard here with its own dedicated federal instrument: the Fire Management Assistance Grant, which appears in this data as an FM record. An FMAG can be authorised while a fire is still burning, on a timescale of hours, because its purpose is to reimburse the cost of fighting a fire that threatens to become a major disaster.
That distinction matters when comparing counties. An FM declaration is not a presidential major disaster declaration and does not carry the same assistance programmes, so a fire-heavy county's total is not directly comparable with a hurricane-heavy county's total unless the declaration types are separated, which is why they are listed separately on this page.
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).
Fire Management - 4 36.4%
of all 11 declarations
Major Disaster - 4 36.4%
of all 11 declarations
Emergency - 3 27.3%
of all 11 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2015 | 2 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 11 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 11 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5516 | DURKEE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2024-07-22 |
| 4499 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-28 |
| 3429 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 5114 | DRY GULCH FIRE | FM | Fire | 2015-09-14 |
| 5097 | CORNET AND WINDY RIDGE FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2015-08-13 |
| 2657 | FOSTER GULCH FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2006-07-25 |
| 3228 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-07 |
| 1510 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-02-19 |
| 1160 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, LAND AND MUDSLIDES, FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-23 |
| 3039 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-04-29 |
| 184 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1964-12-24 |
Storm Events in Oregon
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Baker County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 859 | 13 | 10 | $3.2B |
| Heavy Snow | 654 | 2 | 0 | $139.2M |
| Frost/Freeze | 391 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Wildfire | 311 | 15 | 38 | $15.1M |
| Flood | 244 | 3 | 1 | $68.4M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
4
Total Paid
$4.7K
Avg Per Claim
$1.2K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 48.2/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$12.2M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Avalanche Relatively High
Landslide Relatively Low
Earthquake Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Lightning Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Volcanic Activity Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Drought Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Tornado 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: Wildfire
Wildfire risk in the model reflects fuel, terrain, weather and how much development sits in the wildland-urban interface. It is one of the few hazards where the exposure is materially changed by land management and building choices, not only by where the county happens to be.
For Baker County the two measures on this page point the same way: Wildfire is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Moderate), and Fire declarations also lead its federal record. Where the model and the declaration history agree, the reading is comparatively straightforward, the hazard is both expected and repeatedly realised.
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
Baker County's closest FEMA peer: Chattahoochee County, GA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Baker County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Baker County shows 11 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Baker County: 4 of 11 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Baker County: NRI composite 48.2 (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 Baker County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Baker 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: 48.2 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 11. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 11 FEMA declarations, Baker County sits in the high-volume declaration band - see how that count ranks against other U.S. counties.
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 Baker County?
The most common disaster type in Baker County is Fire, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Severe Storm (2), Coastal Storm (1).
How does Baker County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Oregon average?
The typical Oregon county has 16.6 FEMA declaration records; Baker County has 11, or 34% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 47% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Baker County received?
Baker County has received 4 major disaster declarations, representing 36% of all 11 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Baker County filed?
Baker County has 4 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $4.7K in payments, with an average of $1.2K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Baker County?
No. In Baker County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $4.9M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Baker County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Baker County was 2015, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Baker County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Baker County, Oregon has an overall risk score of 48.2 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively High; on community resilience, Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $12.2M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Baker County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Baker County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Avalanche (Relatively High) and Landslide (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 170 years. 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 Baker County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Oregon profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events