FEMA Records
35
Very high volume
North Dakota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Cass County, ND
35 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 35
- FEMA declarations
- 30
- Major disasters
- 82
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Cass County. Its 35 FEMA declarations are 35% above the North Dakota county mean and exceed the count for 93% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 18%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 18%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 35
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 3,345
- 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 38017 · Cass County 35 declarations · rank 206/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 35
- MAJOR-HEAVY 86%
- RANK-UPPER #206
- PHOTO-FINISH Okeechobee
- NRI-MID 82
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +35%
Nearest declaration peer: Okeechobee, FL (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · North Dakota state profile
Cass County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Cass County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Brunswick · near 35
Brunswick · near
35 declarations
- Cass · this county 35
Cass · this county
35 declarations
- Indian River · near 35
Indian River · near
35 declarations
- Okeechobee · near 35
Okeechobee · near
35 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Cass County carries 35 FEMA declaration records, ranked 206 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Cass County ranks in the national declaration registry
Cass County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Cass County
35 Top 7% higher than 93% 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
Cass County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Cass County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $34.2M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very Low), while Winter Weather carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Very 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 Cass County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 3,345 claims and $24.8M 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 $7.4K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Cass County's 35 federal records stand 35% above the North Dakota county mean of 25.9. That comparison describes how often federal action was recorded, including any Major Disaster, Emergency, and Fire Management entries shown on this page; it does not convert the count into future probability.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 82.4/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $81.8M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very Low and community resilience Very High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Winter Weather stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 24 times per year here, based on 461 historical events on record.
76 /100
Historical Activity Index
Very High historical activity
Cass County, ND · 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) Very High
25/30
35 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
17/25
35 declarations (1.4x state county average of 26)
Major Disaster Share Very High
21/25
30 of 35 declarations are major disasters (86%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Cass County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Cass 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
86%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
82
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Cass 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Winter Weather | Very High | an average of 24 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Very High | an average of 2.5 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively High | an average of 4.2 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very High | roughly once every 2 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 19 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.2 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 30 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 1.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,903 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 7,576 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 1.6 modeled event-days per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 22
Severe Storm 9
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Coastal Storm 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Cass County's record, 63% 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 - 30 85.7%
of all 35 declarations
Emergency - 5 14.3%
of all 35 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2010 | 2 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 2 | |
| 2006 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
Show 11 earlier declaration years
| 1997 | 2 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1989 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 2 | |
| 1970 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
| 1966 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 35 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 35 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4888 | SEVERE STORM, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2025-09-11 |
| 4760 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Winter Storm | 2024-02-15 |
| 4553 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2020-07-09 |
| 4509 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-01 |
| 3477 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4444 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-06-12 |
| 4118 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2013-05-29 |
| 3364 | FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2013-04-26 |
| 1981 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2011-05-10 |
| 3318 | FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2011-04-07 |
| 1907 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2010-04-30 |
| 3309 | FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2010-03-14 |
| 1829 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-03-24 |
| 1725 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-09-07 |
| 1713 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-07-17 |
| 1645 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND GROUND SATURATION | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-06-05 |
| 1621 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-01-04 |
| 3247 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-13 |
| 1376 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, & GROUND SATURATION | DR | Flood | 2001-05-28 |
| 1334 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING AND GROUND SATURATION | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-06-27 |
Show 15 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1279 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, SNOW, ICE, GROUND SATURATION, LANSLIDES, MUDSLIDES, AND TOR | DR | Flood | 1999-06-08 |
| 1220 | FLOODING, GROUND SATURATION,SEVERE STORMS | DR | Flood | 1998-06-15 |
| 1174 | SEVERE FLOODING,SEVERE WINTER STORMS, SNOWMELT, SPRING RAINS | DR | Flood | 1997-04-07 |
| 1157 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND BLIZZARD CONDITIONS | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-12 |
| 1118 | SEVERE STORMS,FLOODING, & ICE JAMS | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-06-05 |
| 1001 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-26 |
| 825 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1989-05-08 |
| 581 | SEVERE STORMS, SNOWMELT & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1979-04-26 |
| 554 | STORMS, ICE JAMS, SNOWMELT & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1978-04-17 |
| 475 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-07-11 |
| 469 | FLOODING FROM RAINS & SNOWMELT | DR | Flood | 1975-05-24 |
| 287 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1970-06-05 |
| 256 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-04-18 |
| 216 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1966-03-23 |
| 195 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1965-05-10 |
Storm Events in North Dakota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Cass County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 2,705 | 0 | 2 | $116.1M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 2,459 | 2 | 10 | $67.0M |
| High Wind | 1,184 | 1 | 1 | $2.9M |
| Heavy Snow | 925 | 0 | 3 | $650.0K |
| Blizzard | 905 | 2 | 2 | $60.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
3,345
Total Paid
$24.8M
Avg Per Claim
$7.4K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 82.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$81.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Winter Weather Very High
Strong Wind Very High
Hail Relatively High
Ice Storm Very High
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Drought 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: Winter Weather
Winter Weather in the model means the accumulation of snow and cold that disrupts rather than destroys: road closures, roof loads, burst pipes and lost heating. Its costs land heavily on transport and on households least able to absorb an interruption.
Worth noting for Cass County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Winter Weather carries the highest modeled rating (Very High), 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
Cass County's closest FEMA peer: Jackson County, TN
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Cass County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Cass County shows 35 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Cass County: 30 of 35 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Cass County: NRI composite 82.4 (Relatively Moderate).
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 Cass County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Cass 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: 82.4 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 35. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Cass County's NFIP claims file (3,345 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 Cass County?
The most common disaster type in Cass County is Flood, with 22 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (9), Biological (2), Winter Storm (1).
How does Cass County's FEMA declaration record compare with the North Dakota average?
FEMA lists 35 declaration records for Cass County. That is 35% above the North Dakota county mean of 25.9. Its count is also 69% above the national county mean of 20.7. A larger declaration history records more federal actions; it is not a forecast of the county's next hazard.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Cass County received?
Cass County has received 30 major disaster declarations, representing 86% of all 35 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Cass County filed?
Cass County has 3,345 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $24.8M in payments, with an average of $7.4K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Cass County?
No. In Cass County, Winter Weather has the highest National Risk Index rating (Very High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $34.2M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Cass County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Cass County was 2020, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2025.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Cass County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Cass County, North Dakota has an overall risk score of 82.4 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $81.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Cass County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Cass County is Winter Weather (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Strong Wind (Very High) and Hail (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts winter weather here at an average of 24 times per year, drawn from 461 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 Cass County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · North Dakota profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events