FEMA Records
18
Below median
Nebraska · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Boyd County, NE
18 FEMA disaster declarations (1967-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 18
- FEMA declarations
- 14
- Major disasters
- 3
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Boyd County. Its 18 FEMA declarations are 7% above the Nebraska county mean and exceed the count for 37% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 3%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 3%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 18
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 18
- 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 31015 · Boyd County 18 declarations · rank 2013/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 18
- MAJOR-MID 78%
- RANK-LOWER #2,013
- PHOTO-FINISH Monroe
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +7%
Nearest declaration peer: Monroe, TN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Nebraska state profile
Boyd County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Boyd County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Boyd · this county 18
Boyd · this county
18 declarations
- Brooke · near 18
Brooke · near
18 declarations
- Mecklenburg · near 18
Mecklenburg · near
18 declarations
- Monroe · near 18
Monroe · near
18 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Boyd County carries 18 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2013 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Boyd County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Boyd County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Boyd County
18 37th percentile higher than 37% 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
Boyd County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Boyd County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $1.2M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Drought 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 Boyd County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits at the very bottom of FEMA's National Risk Index nationally, a composite score of 3.4/100 (rated Very Low). Projected losses are minimal, Expected Annual Loss reads Very Low (roughly $3.5M in annualized losses), and the county's exposure is shaped by a Very Low social-vulnerability profile and Relatively Low community resilience. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Drought carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 37 modeled event-days per year here, based on 931 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 18 claims and $313.3K 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.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Boyd County's 18 federal records stand 7% above the Nebraska county mean of 16.8. 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.
60 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Boyd County, NE · 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
13/30
18 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
13/25
18 declarations (1.1x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share Very High
19/25
14 of 18 declarations are major disasters (78%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Boyd County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Boyd 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
78%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
3
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Boyd 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 37 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,306 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 6.6 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 5 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 15 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | an average of 2.3 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 5.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 38 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,404 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 7
Severe Storm 6
Biological 2
Snowstorm 1
Hurricane 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Boyd County's record, 39% 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 - 14 77.8%
of all 18 declarations
Emergency - 4 22.2%
of all 18 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2010 | 3 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 2 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1967 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 18 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 18 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4822 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-09-24 |
| 4521 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-04 |
| 3483 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4420 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-03-21 |
| 4387 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2018-08-27 |
| 4375 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Snowstorm | 2018-06-29 |
| 4013 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2011-08-12 |
| 3323 | FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2011-06-18 |
| 1924 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-07-15 |
| 1902 | SEVERE STORMS, ICE JAMS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2010-04-21 |
| 1878 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-02-25 |
| 1770 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-06-20 |
| 1627 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-01-26 |
| 3245 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUEES | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 998 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-19 |
| 983 | ICE JAMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-04-02 |
| 3022 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-01-18 |
| 228 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1967-07-18 |
Storm Events in Nebraska
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Boyd County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 6,079 | 0 | 2 | $237.7M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,757 | 3 | 19 | $228.1M |
| Drought | 1,658 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| High Wind | 1,647 | 1 | 1 | $22.1M |
| Winter Storm | 1,155 | 0 | 2 | $335.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
18
Total Paid
$313.3K
Avg Per Claim
$17.4K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 3.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$3.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Very Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Tornado Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Riverine Flooding 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: Drought
Drought is the slowest of the modeled hazards and the least visible: it does its damage to agriculture, water supply and soil over seasons rather than hours, so it rarely produces the kind of single-day damage that drives a disaster declaration. FEMA scores it in event-days per year rather than discrete events for exactly that reason.
Worth noting for Boyd County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought 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
Boyd County's closest FEMA peer: Hocking County, OH
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Boyd County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Boyd County shows 18 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Boyd County: 14 of 18 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Boyd County: NRI composite 3.4 (Very 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 Boyd County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Boyd 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: 3.4 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 18. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 18 FEMA declarations, Boyd 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 Boyd County?
The most common disaster type in Boyd County is Flood, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (6), Biological (2), Snowstorm (1).
How does Boyd County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Nebraska average?
FEMA lists 18 declaration records for Boyd County. That is 7% above the Nebraska county mean of 16.8. Its count is also 13% below 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 Boyd County received?
Boyd County has received 14 major disaster declarations, representing 78% of all 18 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Boyd County filed?
Boyd County has 18 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $313.3K in payments, with an average of $17.4K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Boyd County?
No. In Boyd County, Drought has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $1.2M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Boyd County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Boyd County was 2010, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1967 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Boyd County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Boyd County, Nebraska has an overall risk score of 3.4 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $3.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Boyd County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Boyd County as of the latest release is Drought (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Very Low) and Cold Wave (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 37 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 931 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 Boyd County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Nebraska profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events