FEMA Records
16
Below median
Kansas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Chautauqua County, KS
16 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 16
- FEMA declarations
- 12
- Major disasters
- 12
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Chautauqua County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 16 declarations, more than 27% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 11% below the Kansas county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 12%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 12%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 16
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 1
- 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 20019 · Chautauqua County 16 declarations · rank 2359/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 16
- MAJOR-MID 75%
- RANK-LOWER #2,359
- PHOTO-FINISH Greene
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -11%
Nearest declaration peer: Greene, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Kansas state profile
Chautauqua County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Chautauqua County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Chautauqua · this county 16
Chautauqua · this county
16 declarations
- Frontier · near 16
Frontier · near
16 declarations
- Greene · near 16
Greene · near
16 declarations
- Terrell · near 16
Terrell · near
16 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Chautauqua County carries 16 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2359 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Chautauqua County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Chautauqua County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Chautauqua County
16 27th percentile higher than 27% 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
Chautauqua County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Chautauqua County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's National Risk Index places this county in the low end of the national distribution, composite score 12.1/100 (Very Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $4.9M in annualized losses). Two modifiers shape how that exposure becomes real-world harm here: social vulnerability (Relatively Moderate) and community resilience (Very Low). Among the 18 modeled hazards, Wildfire carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 117 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 1 claim and $439 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 Kansas county averages 18.0 federal declaration records, while Chautauqua County has 16. The gap is 11% 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.
55 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Chautauqua County, KS · 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
12/30
16 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
16 declarations (0.9x state county average of 18)
Major Disaster Share Very High
19/25
12 of 16 declarations are major disasters (75%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Chautauqua County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Chautauqua 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
75%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
12
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Chautauqua 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 117 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 57 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 8.5 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 16 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 8.8 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 6.9 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 1.3 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,096 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 52 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 10
Biological 2
Flood 2
Hurricane 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Chautauqua County's record, 63% 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 - 12 75.0%
of all 16 declarations
Emergency - 4 25.0%
of all 16 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 2 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1987 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 16 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 16 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4869 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, AND WILDFIRES | DR | Severe Storm | 2025-05-21 |
| 4800 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-07-15 |
| 4504 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-29 |
| 3481 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4449 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, FLOODING,LANDSLIDES,AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2019-06-20 |
| 3412 | TORNADOES AND FLOODING | EM | Severe Storm | 2019-05-28 |
| 4230 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-07-20 |
| 1848 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND RECORD AND NEAR RECORD SNOW | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-06-24 |
| 1776 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-07-09 |
| 3282 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | EM | Severe Storm | 2007-12-12 |
| 1711 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-07-02 |
| 3236 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1579 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, HEAVY RAINS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2005-02-08 |
| 1402 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2002-02-06 |
| 780 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-10-22 |
| 378 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-05-02 |
Storm Events in Kansas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Chautauqua County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 8,265 | 0 | 9 | $24.2M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 7,987 | 3 | 34 | $30.6M |
| High Wind | 1,553 | 1 | 7 | $10.2M |
| Drought | 1,272 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Flash Flood | 1,037 | 6 | 9 | $35.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
1
Total Paid
$439
Avg Per Claim
$439
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 12.1/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$4.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Lightning 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: Wildfire
Wildfire risk in the model reflects fuel, terrain, weather and how much development sits in the wildland-urban interface. It is one of the few hazards where the exposure is materially changed by land management and building choices, not only by where the county happens to be.
Worth noting for Chautauqua County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Wildfire 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
Chautauqua County's closest FEMA peer: Carroll County, IL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Chautauqua County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Chautauqua County shows 16 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Chautauqua County: 12 of 16 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Chautauqua County: NRI composite 12.1 (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 Chautauqua County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Chautauqua 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: 12.1 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 16. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 16 FEMA declarations, Chautauqua 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 Chautauqua County?
The most common disaster type in Chautauqua County is Severe Storm, with 10 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Flood (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Chautauqua County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Kansas average?
The typical Kansas county has 18.0 FEMA declaration records; Chautauqua County has 16, or 11% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 23% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Chautauqua County received?
Chautauqua County has received 12 major disaster declarations, representing 75% of all 16 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Chautauqua County filed?
Chautauqua County has 1 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $439 in payments, with an average of $439 per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Chautauqua County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Chautauqua County was 2005, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2025.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Chautauqua County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Chautauqua County, Kansas has an overall risk score of 12.1 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Moderate; on community resilience, Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $4.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Chautauqua County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Chautauqua County is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Landslide (Relatively Low) and Ice Storm (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 117 years. 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Chautauqua County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Kansas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events