FEMA Records
21
Above median
Missouri · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Benton County, MO
21 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 21
- FEMA declarations
- 15
- Major disasters
- 67
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Benton County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 21 declarations, more than 52% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 15% below the Missouri county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 33%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 33%
- 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
- 38
- 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 29015 · Benton County 21 declarations · rank 1416/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 21
- MAJOR-MID 71%
- RANK-LOWER #1,416
- PHOTO-FINISH Montgomery
- NRI-LOW 67
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -15%
Nearest declaration peer: Montgomery, IN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Missouri state profile
Benton County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Benton County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Atascosa · near 21
Atascosa · near
21 declarations
- Benton · this county 21
Benton · this county
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 Benton County carries 21 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1416 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Benton County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Benton County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Benton 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
Benton County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Benton County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $7.7M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Strong Wind 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.
What does Benton County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 66.8/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $16.9M in annualized losses), and a Very High social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively Low community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Strong Wind stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 4 times per year here, based on 154 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 38 claims and $317.6K 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 Missouri county averages 24.6 federal declaration records, while Benton County has 21. The gap is 15% 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.
59 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Benton County, MO · 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 Moderate
11/25
21 declarations (0.9x state county average of 25)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
15 of 21 declarations are major disasters (71%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Benton County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Benton 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
71%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
67
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Benton 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 4 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 52 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 14 modeled event-days per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 9.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 445 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 12 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 3.5 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 2.5 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 597 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 5.9 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 10
Severe Ice Storm 5
Biological 2
Flood 2
Hurricane 1
Drought 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Benton County's record, 48% of its declarations. In FEMA's vocabulary this covers convective weather: thunderstorm straight-line winds, large hail, and the multi-day outbreaks that often carry embedded tornadoes. Activity is heaviest in spring and summer, though the season varies by region.
These events behave differently from a hurricane on paper. Damage tends to be distributed along a storm track rather than concentrated on a coastline, and a declaration typically follows an outbreak that crossed several counties over a few days, not a single point of impact. Because the qualifying threshold is the cost of uninsured public and individual losses rather than storm intensity, two similar storms can produce a declaration in one year and none in another.
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 - 15 71.4%
of all 21 declarations
Emergency - 6 28.6%
of all 21 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
Show 3 earlier declaration years
| 1987 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4741 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-09-21 |
| 4490 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-26 |
| 3482 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4451 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2019-07-09 |
| 4238 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-08-07 |
| 1961 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-03-23 |
| 3317 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Storm | 2011-02-03 |
| 3303 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2009-01-30 |
| 1736 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2007-12-27 |
| 3281 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2007-12-12 |
| 1676 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2007-01-15 |
| 1631 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-03-16 |
| 3232 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1524 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-06-11 |
| 1463 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-05-06 |
| 1403 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2002-02-06 |
| 1054 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, HAIL, FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-06-02 |
| 995 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-09 |
| 779 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-10-14 |
| 3017 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1976-09-24 |
Show 1 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 372 | HEAVY RAINS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1973-04-19 |
Storm Events in Missouri
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Benton County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 6,391 | 30 | 52 | $63.4M |
| Hail | 4,411 | 0 | 1 | $86.1M |
| Flash Flood | 2,399 | 47 | 14 | $406.6M |
| Flood | 1,810 | 25 | 7 | $304.6M |
| Drought | 1,033 | 0 | 350 | $53.6M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
38
Total Paid
$317.6K
Avg Per Claim
$8.4K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 66.8/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$16.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Strong Wind Relatively High
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Landslide Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Hail Relatively Low
Hurricane 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: Strong Wind
Strong Wind covers damaging non-thunderstorm, non-tornadic wind, the kind produced by steep pressure gradients and downslope events. It is a broad, frequent, low-drama hazard: roofs, signage, power lines and high-profile vehicles, spread across a wide area rather than concentrated on a path.
For Benton County the two measures on this page point the same way: Strong Wind is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively High), and Severe Storm 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
Benton County's closest FEMA peer: Bennington County, VT
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Benton County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Benton County shows 21 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Benton County: 15 of 21 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Benton County: NRI composite 66.8 (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 Benton County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Benton 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: 66.8 (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
Most disaster-prone counties
With 21 FEMA declarations, Benton 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 Benton County?
The most common disaster type in Benton County is Severe Storm, with 10 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Ice Storm (5), Biological (2), Flood (2).
How does Benton County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Missouri average?
The typical Missouri county has 24.6 FEMA declaration records; Benton County has 21, or 15% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 1% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Benton County received?
Benton County has received 15 major disaster declarations, representing 71% of all 21 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Benton County filed?
Benton County has 38 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $317.6K in payments, with an average of $8.4K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Benton County?
No. In Benton County, Strong Wind has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $7.7M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Benton County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Benton County was 2008, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Benton County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Benton County, Missouri has an overall risk score of 66.8 out of 100 (Relatively Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very High, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $16.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Benton County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Benton County as of the latest release is Strong Wind (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Lightning (Relatively Moderate) and Ice Storm (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts strong wind here at an average of 4 times per year, drawn from 154 historical events on record. FEMA derives these ratings from historical event frequency, the assets exposed, and the community's vulnerability profile.
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 Benton County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Missouri profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events