FEMA Records
17
Below median
Iowa · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Bremer County, IA
17 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 17
- FEMA declarations
- 15
- Major disasters
- 25
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Bremer County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 17 declarations, more than 32% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 12% below the Iowa county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 25%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 25%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 17
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 643
- 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 19017 · Bremer County 17 declarations · rank 2136/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 17
- MAJOR-HEAVY 88%
- RANK-LOWER #2,136
- PHOTO-FINISH Curry
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -12%
Nearest declaration peer: Curry, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Iowa state profile
Bremer County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Bremer County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Bremer · this county 17
Bremer · this county
17 declarations
- Curry · near 17
Curry · near
17 declarations
- Murray · near 17
Murray · near
17 declarations
- Washington · near 17
Washington · near
17 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Bremer County carries 17 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2136 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Bremer County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Bremer County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Bremer County
17 32nd percentile higher than 32% 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
Bremer County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Bremer County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $7.1M 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 Bremer County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 643 claims and $14.8M in payments. PlainHazard labels 500 or more claims a heavy registry record; that is a reporting bucket, not an official FEMA risk grade. The average paid claim was $23.0K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
Start with the state benchmark: a Iowa county averages 19.3 federal declaration records, while Bremer County has 17. The gap is 12% 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's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 24.6/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $15.3M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Very Low social-vulnerability score and Very High community-resilience score. 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 16 modeled event-days per year here, based on 434 historical events on record.
55 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Bremer County, IA · 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
12/30
17 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
17 declarations (0.9x state county average of 19)
Major Disaster Share Very High
22/25
15 of 17 declarations are major disasters (88%)
Hazard Diversity High
10/20
4 different disaster types declared in Bremer County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Bremer 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
88%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
25
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Bremer 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 | 16 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 4.8 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 18 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 4.8 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 9.3 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 21 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 5,272 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 3.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,898 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 41 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 8
Severe Storm 6
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Bremer County's record, 47% 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 - 15 88.2%
of all 17 declarations
Emergency - 2 11.8%
of all 17 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 2 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
| 1968 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 17 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 17 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4483 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-23 |
| 3480 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4421 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-03-23 |
| 4334 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2017-08-27 |
| 4289 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2016-10-31 |
| 1763 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-05-27 |
| 1688 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-03-14 |
| 3239 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1518 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-05-25 |
| 1282 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-07-22 |
| 1277 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-05-21 |
| 996 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-09 |
| 911 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1991-07-12 |
| 879 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1990-09-06 |
| 269 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-08-14 |
| 248 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1968-08-04 |
| 193 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1965-04-22 |
Storm Events in Iowa
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Bremer County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,928 | 6 | 227 | $40.5M |
| Hail | 3,736 | 0 | 0 | $4.3M |
| Heavy Rain | 2,394 | 0 | 0 | $292.0K |
| Drought | 1,556 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Winter Storm | 1,543 | 3 | 4 | $2.8M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
643
Total Paid
$14.8M
Avg Per Claim
$23.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 24.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$15.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Lightning 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 Bremer 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
Bremer County's closest FEMA peer: Alexander County, IL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Bremer County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Bremer County shows 17 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Bremer County: 15 of 17 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Bremer County: NRI composite 24.6 (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 Bremer County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Bremer 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: 24.6 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 17. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Bremer County's NFIP claims file (643 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 Bremer County?
The most common disaster type in Bremer County is Flood, with 8 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (6), Biological (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Bremer County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Iowa average?
The typical Iowa county has 19.3 FEMA declaration records; Bremer County has 17, or 12% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 18% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Bremer County received?
Bremer County has received 15 major disaster declarations, representing 88% of all 17 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Bremer County filed?
Bremer County has 643 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $14.8M in payments, with an average of $23.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Bremer County?
No. In Bremer County, Drought has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $7.1M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Bremer County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Bremer County was 1999, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Bremer County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Bremer County, Iowa has an overall risk score of 24.6 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $15.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Bremer County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Bremer County is Drought (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively Low) and Winter Weather (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 16 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 434 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 Bremer County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Iowa profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events