FEMA Records
11
Low volume
Nebraska · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Brown County, NE
11 FEMA disaster declarations (1967-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 11
- FEMA declarations
- 9
- Major disasters
- 2
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Brown 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 35% below the Nebraska county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 2%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 2%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 11
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 6
- severe storm declarations, the most common hazard here
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.
How does Brown County compare?
Brown County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
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 · 2026-08-03
Brown County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Nebraska county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Brown County is led by Cold Wave (about $550.2K Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), 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 Brown County's hazard record show?
Declaration frequency
Nationally, Brown County's 11 FEMA records form a high-volume history; within Nebraska, however, the count is 35% below the county mean. 9 entries carry the Major Disaster classification. The largest incident group is Severe Storm, appearing 6 times. The full 53-year record averages 0.2 declarations annually. A DR label alone does not say whether Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, or both followed.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits at the very bottom of FEMA's National Risk Index nationally, a composite score of 2.4/100 (rated Very Low). Projected losses are minimal, Expected Annual Loss reads Very Low (roughly $2.7M 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 42 modeled event-days per year here, based on 1,064 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
No paid-claim row for this county appears in the NFIP county table used by PlainHazard. That absence is not evidence that flooding never occurred: the register observes claims under federal flood-insurance policies, not uninsured losses, emergency reports, or every flood outside the program. The FEMA declaration history below is therefore the available federal-action record on this page.
Start with the state benchmark: a Nebraska county averages 16.8 federal declaration records, while Brown County has 11. The gap is 35% 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.
46 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Brown 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
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 Very High
20/25
9 of 11 declarations are major disasters (82%)
Hazard Diversity High
10/20
4 different disaster types declared in Brown County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Nebraska Avg
-35%
State avg: 16.8
vs. National Avg
-47%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.2
Over 53 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Brown 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
82%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
2
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Brown 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 | 42 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 5 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 790 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 17 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 6.6 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | an average of 1.7 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 4 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,198 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 41 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 6
Biological 2
Flood 2
Hurricane 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Brown County's record, 55% 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 - 9 81.8%
of all 11 declarations
Emergency - 2 18.2%
of all 11 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1967 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 1924 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-07-15 |
| 1878 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-02-25 |
| 1770 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-06-20 |
| 1706 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-06-06 |
| 1674 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-01-07 |
| 3245 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUEES | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1373 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2001-05-16 |
| 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 Brown 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
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 2.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$2.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Riverine Flooding 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 Brown 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 Severe Storm. 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
Brown County's closest FEMA peer: Treasure County, MT
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Brown County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Brown County shows 11 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Brown County: 9 of 11 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Brown County: NRI composite 2.4 (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 Brown County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 11 FEMA declarations, Brown 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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Brown County?
The most common disaster type in Brown County is Severe Storm, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Flood (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Brown County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Nebraska average?
The typical Nebraska county has 16.8 FEMA declaration records; Brown County has 11, or 35% 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 Brown County received?
Brown County has received 9 major disaster declarations, representing 82% of all 11 disaster declarations.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Brown County?
No. In Brown County, Drought has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Cold Wave leads Expected Annual Loss at about $550.2K. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Brown County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Brown County was 2007, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1967 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Brown County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Brown County, Nebraska has an overall risk score of 2.4 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 $2.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Brown County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Brown County is Drought (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively Low) and Wildfire (Very Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 42 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 1,064 historical events on record. The underlying methodology weighs historical event frequency against 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.
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.
What this means for Brown County
Against a Nebraska county mean of 17 declarations, Brown County, NE records 11, or 35% fewer. PlainHazard classifies that historical total as high activity.
- Major Disaster is the largest group (9 of 11) in a declaration history that remains below its state benchmark; frequency here is not a forecast. Nebraska overview
- Nationally the county exceeds 12% of recorded county totals, but its own Nebraska benchmark is higher. The ranking keeps those two contexts separate. Most-disaster rankings
- With no NFIP county row, the declaration register and modeled NRI remain distinct evidence rather than substitutes for a claims history. Disaster-data guide
A below-average federal record is not a safety guarantee. Use National Weather Service alerts and local emergency-management notices for present conditions, not this historical comparison.
PlainHazard derives this profile from FEMA's Disaster Declarations Summaries and National Risk Index data. The declaration comparison covers 3,266 U.S. counties and county equivalents in this database, refreshed as of 2026-08-03. Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
All federal data sources used on this page
- FEMA OpenFEMA, Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 - all federally-declared disasters for this county. fema.gov/openfema/disaster-declarations
- FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) - per-county per-hazard risk ratings and expected annual loss. hazards.fema.gov/nri
- NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database - state-level storm/severe-weather event records, 2015-2025. ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainHazard Editorial
Verify with FEMA → · Verify with FEMA NRI → · Verify with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.