FEMA Records
14
Low volume
Ohio · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Butler County, OH
14 FEMA disaster declarations (1968-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 14
- FEMA declarations
- 9
- Major disasters
- 91
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Butler County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 14 declarations, more than 20% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 4% below the Ohio county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 9%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 9%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 14
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 474
- 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.
How does Butler County compare?
Butler County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
14 20th percentile higher than 20% 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
Butler County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Ohio county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Butler County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $62.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Tornado 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 Butler County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 474 paid claims, totaling $4.6M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $9.7K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Ohio county averages 14.6 federal declaration records, while Butler County has 14. The gap is 4% 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 91.5/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $119.7M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Low and community resilience Relatively High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Tornado stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 3 years here, based on 13 historical events on record.
Declaration frequency
Nationally, Butler County's 14 FEMA records form a high-volume history; within Ohio, however, the count is 4% below the county mean. 9 entries carry the Major Disaster classification. The largest incident group is Severe Storm, appearing 5 times. The full 52-year record averages 0.3 declarations annually. A DR label alone does not say whether Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, or both followed.
53 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Butler County, OH · 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
10/30
14 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
14 declarations (1.0x state county average of 15)
Major Disaster Share High
16/25
9 of 14 declarations are major disasters (64%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Butler County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Ohio Avg
-4%
State avg: 14.6
vs. National Avg
-32%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.3
Over 52 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Butler 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
64%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
91
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Butler 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tornado | Relatively High | roughly once every 3 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively High | an average of 3.2 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 49 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 2.8 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.6 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 11 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 655 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 6.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.6 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 1.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 11,306 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 174 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 5
Flood 3
Biological 2
Snowstorm 2
Hurricane 1
Tornado 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Butler County's record, 36% 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 64.3%
of all 14 declarations
Emergency - 5 35.7%
of all 14 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1989 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1968 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 14 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 14 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4507 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-31 |
| 3457 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 3346 | SEVERE STORMS | EM | Severe Storm | 2012-06-30 |
| 1805 | SEVERE WIND STORM ASSOCIATED WITH TROPICAL DEPRESSION IKE | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-10-24 |
| 3250 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 3198 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2005-01-11 |
| 1556 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-09-19 |
| 1390 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2001-08-27 |
| 1122 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1996-06-24 |
| 870 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-06-06 |
| 831 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1989-06-10 |
| 3055 | BLIZZARDS & SNOWSTORMS | EM | Snowstorm | 1978-01-26 |
| 421 | TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1974-04-04 |
| 243 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1968-06-05 |
Storm Events in Ohio
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Butler County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 6,938 | 6 | 39 | $60.4M |
| Winter Weather | 2,101 | 7 | 42 | $3.3M |
| Hail | 1,749 | 0 | 0 | $673.5K |
| Flood | 1,607 | 9 | 0 | $84.5M |
| Flash Flood | 1,089 | 9 | 7 | $112.2M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
474
Total Paid
$4.6M
Avg Per Claim
$9.7K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 91.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$119.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Tornado Relatively High
Cold Wave Relatively High
Lightning Relatively High
Strong Wind Relatively High
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively High
Winter Weather Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Wildfire Very 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: Tornado
Tornado exposure is the most spatially concentrated in the model: total destruction along a narrow corridor with intact property either side. County-level averages therefore understate severity badly for anyone actually in the path, and overstate it for everyone else.
For Butler County the two measures on this page point the same way: Tornado 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
Butler County's closest FEMA peer: Guadalupe County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Butler County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Butler County: NRI composite 91.5 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar Major-disaster share
Butler County: 9 of 14 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Butler County shows 14 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
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 Butler County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Butler County's NFIP claims file (474 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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Butler County?
The most common disaster type in Butler County is Severe Storm, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (3), Biological (2), Snowstorm (2).
How does Butler County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Ohio average?
The typical Ohio county has 14.6 FEMA declaration records; Butler County has 14, or 4% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 32% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Butler County received?
Butler County has received 9 major disaster declarations, representing 64% of all 14 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Butler County filed?
Butler County has 474 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $4.6M in payments, with an average of $9.7K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Butler County?
No. In Butler County, Tornado has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $62.3M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Butler County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Butler County was 2005, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1968 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Butler County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Butler County, Ohio has an overall risk score of 91.5 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Low; on community resilience, Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $119.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Butler County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Butler County as of the latest release is Tornado (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Cold Wave (Relatively High) and Lightning (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts tornado here at roughly once every 3 years, drawn from 13 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.
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.
What this means for Butler County
Against a Ohio county mean of 15 declarations, Butler County, OH records 14, or 4% fewer. PlainHazard classifies that historical total as high activity.
- Major Disaster is the largest group (9 of 14) in a declaration history that remains below its state benchmark; frequency here is not a forecast. Ohio overview
- Nationally the county exceeds 20% of recorded county totals, but its own Ohio benchmark is higher. The ranking keeps those two contexts separate. Most-disaster rankings
- Use the data guide to separate this mid-volume insurance-claims file from declaration counts and modeled NRI risk. 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.