FEMA Records
18
Below median
Iowa · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Calhoun County, IA
18 FEMA disaster declarations (1979-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 18
- FEMA declarations
- 16
- Major disasters
- 45
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Calhoun County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 18 declarations, more than 37% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 7% below the Iowa county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 45%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 45%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 18
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 9
- 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 19025 · Calhoun County 18 declarations · rank 1973/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 18
- MAJOR-HEAVY 89%
- RANK-LOWER #1,973
- PHOTO-FINISH Monroe
- NRI-LOW 45
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -7%
Nearest declaration peer: Monroe, TN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Iowa state profile
Calhoun County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Calhoun County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Brooke · near 18
Brooke · near
18 declarations
- Calhoun · this county 18
Calhoun · this county
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 Calhoun County carries 18 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1973 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Calhoun County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Calhoun County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Calhoun 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
Calhoun County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Calhoun County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 44.6/100 for this county (Relatively Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $13.3M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively Moderate) and community resilience (Very High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Drought stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 17 modeled event-days per year here, based on 469 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 Iowa county averages 19.3 federal declaration records, while Calhoun County has 18. The gap is 7% 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.
62 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Calhoun 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
13/30
18 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
18 declarations (0.9x state county average of 19)
Major Disaster Share Very High
22/25
16 of 18 declarations are major disasters (89%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Calhoun County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Calhoun 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
89%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
45
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Calhoun 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 High | 17 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5.7 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.9 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 16 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 9 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | an average of 1.8 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 16 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 43 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 4.9 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,901 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 10,488 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 9
Flood 4
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
Tornado 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Calhoun County's record, 50% 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 - 16 88.9%
of all 18 declarations
Emergency - 2 11.1%
of all 18 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 3 | |
| 2007 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4784 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-05-24 |
| 4642 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-02-23 |
| 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 |
| 1930 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-07-29 |
| 1880 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-03-02 |
| 1877 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-02-25 |
| 1727 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-09-14 |
| 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 |
| 1367 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2001-05-02 |
| 1230 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1998-07-02 |
| 996 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-09 |
| 928 | ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 1991-12-26 |
| 868 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1990-05-26 |
| 590 | HIGH WINDS & TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1979-07-01 |
Storm Events in Iowa
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Calhoun 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
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 44.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$13.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively High
Hail Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Wildfire 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 Calhoun County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively High), 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
Calhoun County's closest FEMA peer: Lake of the Woods County, MN
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Calhoun County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Calhoun County shows 18 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Calhoun County: 16 of 18 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Calhoun County: NRI composite 44.6 (Relatively 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 Calhoun County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Calhoun 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: 44.6 (Relatively 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, Calhoun 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 Calhoun County?
The most common disaster type in Calhoun County is Severe Storm, with 9 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (4), Biological (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Calhoun County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Iowa average?
The typical Iowa county has 19.3 FEMA declaration records; Calhoun County has 18, or 7% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 13% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Calhoun County received?
Calhoun County has received 16 major disaster declarations, representing 89% of all 18 disaster declarations.
What was the worst year for disasters in Calhoun County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Calhoun County was 2010, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1979 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Calhoun County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Calhoun County, Iowa has an overall risk score of 44.6 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Moderate; on community resilience, Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $13.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Calhoun County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Calhoun County as of the latest release is Drought (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively Moderate) and Tornado (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 17 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 469 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.
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 Calhoun County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Iowa profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events