FEMA Records
20
Above median
Washington · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Benton County, WA
20 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 20
- FEMA declarations
- 13
- Major disasters
- 87
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Benton County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 20 declarations, more than 46% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 20% below the Washington county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 13%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 13%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 20
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 108
- 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 53005 · Benton County 20 declarations · rank 1660/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 20
- MAJOR-MID 65%
- RANK-LOWER #1,660
- PHOTO-FINISH Monona
- NRI-MID 87
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -20%
Nearest declaration peer: Monona, IA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Washington 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
- Benton · this county 20
Benton · this county
20 declarations
- Cleveland · near 20
Cleveland · near
20 declarations
- Monona · near 20
Monona · near
20 declarations
- Tallapoosa · near 20
Tallapoosa · near
20 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Benton County carries 20 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1660 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
20 46th percentile higher than 46% 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 $40.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), 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 Benton County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 108 paid claims, totaling $1.5M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $13.5K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Washington county averages 24.9 federal declaration records, while Benton County has 20. The gap is 20% 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 87.1/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $69.8M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Low and community resilience Relatively Moderate, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. 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 92 years here.
60 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Benton County, WA · 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
14/30
20 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25
20 declarations (0.8x state county average of 25)
Major Disaster Share High
16/25
13 of 20 declarations are major disasters (65%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 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
65%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
87
Relatively Moderate
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 92 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 7.9 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 174 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 7.9 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | roughly once every 4 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 76 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 7.4 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 26 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 16 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 9
Fire 3
Biological 2
Severe Storm 2
Coastal Storm 1
Earthquake 1
Volcanic Eruption 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Benton County's record, 45% 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 - 13 65.0%
of all 20 declarations
Emergency - 4 20.0%
of all 20 declarations
Fire Management - 3 15.0%
of all 20 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 3 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1980 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
Show 2 earlier declaration years
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 20 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 20 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3629 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | EM | Flood | 2025-12-12 |
| 4481 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-22 |
| 3427 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4309 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2017-04-21 |
| 5142 | SOUTH WARD GAP FIRE | FM | Fire | 2016-08-01 |
| 2827 | DRY CREEK FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2009-08-22 |
| 1825 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND RECORD AND NEAR RECORD SNOW | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-03-02 |
| 1817 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, LANDSLIDES, MUDSLIDES, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2009-01-30 |
| 3227 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-07 |
| 1361 | EARTHQUAKE | DR | Earthquake | 2001-03-01 |
| 2311 | TWO FORK FIRE | FM | Fire | 2000-02-29 |
| 1159 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, LAND & MUDS SLIDES,FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-17 |
| 1100 | HIGH WINDS, SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1996-02-09 |
| 852 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1990-01-18 |
| 623 | VOLCANIC ERUPTION, MT. ST. HELENS | DR | Volcanic Eruption | 1980-05-21 |
| 545 | SEVERE STORMS,MUDSLIDES, & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1977-12-10 |
| 3037 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-03-31 |
| 492 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-12-13 |
| 414 | SEVERE STORMS, SNOWMELT & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1974-01-25 |
| 185 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1964-12-29 |
Storm Events in Washington
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Benton County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy Snow | 1,700 | 5 | 7 | $2.3M |
| High Wind | 614 | 15 | 6 | $1.1B |
| Wildfire | 299 | 4 | 4 | $1.8B |
| Winter Weather | 259 | 9 | 62 | $1.1M |
| Flood | 231 | 4 | 0 | $391.2M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
108
Total Paid
$1.5M
Avg Per Claim
$13.5K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 87.1/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$69.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively High
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively High
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Volcanic Activity Very Low
Landslide Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Avalanche Very Low
Drought 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.
Worth noting for Benton County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Wildfire 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
Benton County's closest FEMA peer: Stafford County, VA
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 20 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Benton County: 13 of 20 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Benton County: NRI composite 87.1 (Relatively Moderate).
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: 87.1 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 20. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Benton County's NFIP claims file (108 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 Benton County?
The most common disaster type in Benton County is Flood, with 9 declarations. Other disaster types include Fire (3), Biological (2), Severe Storm (2).
How does Benton County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Washington average?
The typical Washington county has 24.9 FEMA declaration records; Benton County has 20, or 20% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 3% lower. 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 13 major disaster declarations, representing 65% of all 20 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Benton County filed?
Benton County has 108 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $1.5M in payments, with an average of $13.5K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Benton County?
No. In Benton County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $40.3M. 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 2009, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Benton County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Benton County, Washington has an overall risk score of 87.1 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $69.8M 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 Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Heat Wave (Relatively Moderate) and Earthquake (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 92 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 Benton County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Washington profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events