FEMA Records
7
Low volume
Utah · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Cache County, UT
7 FEMA disaster declarations (1977-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 7
- FEMA declarations
- 4
- Major disasters
- 67
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Start with the local benchmark for Cache County: 7 FEMA declaration records are 17% below the Utah county mean, even though the count is higher than 4% of counties in the national registry. On FEMA's distinct National Risk Index model, which combines expected loss with vulnerability and resilience, the county ranks in the riskiest 33%.
- Riskiest 33%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 7
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 42
- 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 Cache County compare?
Cache County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
7 4th percentile higher than 4% 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
Cache County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Utah county average
What does Cache County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 66.5/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $38.8M in annualized losses), and a Very Low social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively High community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Earthquake carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 78 years here.
Declaration frequency
The state comparison is the clearest context for Cache County's moderate federal record. Its 7 declarations sit 17% below the Utah county mean, with 4 Major Disaster entries among them. 3 records concern Flood, the file's most frequent incident type. Spread across 43 years, the registry rate is 0.2 per year. FEMA reports authorized programs separately from the DR, EM, and FM codes.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 42 claims and $132.1K 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.
Start with the state benchmark: a Utah county averages 8.5 federal declaration records, while Cache County has 7. The gap is 17% 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.
39 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Cache County, UT · 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) Low
5/30
7 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.3x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25
7 declarations (0.8x state county average of 8)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
4 of 7 declarations are major disasters (57%)
Hazard Diversity High
10/20
4 different disaster types declared in Cache County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
Moderate
vs. Utah Avg
-17%
State avg: 8.5
vs. National Avg
-66%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.2
Over 43 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Cache 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
57%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
67
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Cache 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 78 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 37 times per year |
| Avalanche | Relatively High | roughly once every 3 years |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 313 years |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 33 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 78 modeled event-days per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 0.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 13 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Hail | 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
Flood 3
Biological 2
Coastal Storm 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Cache County's record, 43% 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 - 4 57.1%
of all 7 declarations
Emergency - 3 42.9%
of all 7 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 7 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 7 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4525 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-04 |
| 3478 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4311 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2017-04-21 |
| 4011 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2011-08-08 |
| 3223 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-05 |
| 760 | HEAVY RAINS, SNOWMELT & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-03-13 |
| 3024 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-01-20 |
Storm Events in Utah
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Cache County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 1,382 | 3 | 7 | $2.2M |
| Flash Flood | 536 | 29 | 17 | $101.2M |
| High Wind | 496 | 4 | 60 | $12.7M |
| Heavy Snow | 488 | 1 | 2 | $2.4M |
| Winter Storm | 344 | 1 | 36 | $435.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
42
Total Paid
$132.1K
Avg Per Claim
$3.1K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 66.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$38.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Earthquake Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively High
Avalanche Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively High
Landslide Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Tornado Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Hail 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: Earthquake
Earthquake is the model's clearest example of a hazard with no season and no warning. Its expected loss is driven less by how often shaking occurs than by how much of the building stock predates modern seismic codes, so exposure can be high in places where nothing has happened for a long time.
Worth noting for Cache County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Earthquake 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
Cache County's closest FEMA peer: Grundy County, IL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Cache County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Cache County: NRI composite 66.5 (Relatively Low).
Similar Major-disaster share
Cache County: 4 of 7 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Cache County shows 7 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
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 Cache County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
FEMA's National Risk Index flags Earthquake as the top modeled exposure here (Relatively Moderate); the guide explains how that model differs from declaration counts.
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 Cache County?
The most common disaster type in Cache County is Flood, with 3 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Coastal Storm (1), Drought (1).
How does Cache County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Utah average?
The typical Utah county has 8.5 FEMA declaration records; Cache County has 7, or 17% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 66% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Cache County received?
Cache County has received 4 major disaster declarations, representing 57% of all 7 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Cache County filed?
Cache County has 42 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $132.1K in payments, with an average of $3.1K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Cache County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Cache County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1977 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Cache County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Cache County, Utah has an overall risk score of 66.5 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $38.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Cache County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Cache County as of the latest release is Earthquake (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Winter Weather (Relatively High) and Avalanche (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts earthquake here at roughly once every 78 years. 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.
What this means for Cache County
Against a Utah county mean of 8 declarations, Cache County, UT records 7, or 17% fewer. PlainHazard classifies that historical total as moderate activity.
- Major Disaster is the largest group (4 of 7) in a declaration history that remains below its state benchmark; frequency here is not a forecast. Utah overview
- Nationally the county exceeds 4% of recorded county totals, but its own Utah benchmark is higher. The ranking keeps those two contexts separate. Most-disaster rankings
- A short NFIP claims file cannot establish low flood exposure; the data guide explains the limits of each federal measure. 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.