FEMA Records
9
Low volume
New Mexico · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Chaves County, NM
9 FEMA disaster declarations (1998-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 9
- FEMA declarations
- 5
- Major disasters
- 88
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Start with the local benchmark for Chaves County: 9 FEMA declaration records are 28% below the New Mexico county mean, even though the count is higher than 8% 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 12%.
- Riskiest 12%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 9
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 132
- 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 35005 · Chaves County 9 declarations · rank 2976/3,266
DECL-LIGHT · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-MODERATE · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-LIGHT 9
- MAJOR-MID 56%
- RANK-LOWER #2,976
- PHOTO-FINISH Fulton
- NRI-MID 88
- ACT-MODERATE Moderate
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -28%
Nearest declaration peer: Fulton, OH (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · New Mexico state profile
Chaves County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Chaves County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Chaves · this county 9
Chaves · this county
9 declarations
- Fulton · near 9
Fulton · near
9 declarations
- Gallatin · near 9
Gallatin · near
9 declarations
- Hillsdale · near 9
Hillsdale · near
9 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Chaves County carries 9 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2976 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Chaves County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Chaves County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Chaves County
9 8th percentile higher than 8% 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
Chaves County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Chaves County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $36.6M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Drought 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 Chaves County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 132 paid claims, totaling $8.2M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $62.0K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a New Mexico county averages 12.5 federal declaration records, while Chaves County has 9. The gap is 28% 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 87.6/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $50.6M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively High and community resilience Very Low, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. 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 144 modeled event-days per year here, based on 4,361 historical events on record.
43 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Chaves County, NM · 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
7/30
9 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.4x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
9/25
9 declarations (0.7x state county average of 12)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
5 of 9 declarations are major disasters (56%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Chaves County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Chaves 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
56%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
88
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Chaves 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 | 144 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | roughly once every 2 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 5.8 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 368 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 4.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 51 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | roughly once every 2 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 10,000 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 3,195 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | an average of 1 time per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | an average of 1 time per year |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 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
Fire 2
Hurricane 1
Severe Storm 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Chaves County's record, 33% 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 - 5 55.6%
of all 9 declarations
Emergency - 4 44.4%
of all 9 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 2 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 9 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 9 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3628 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND LANDSLIDES | EM | Flood | 2025-07-10 |
| 4843 | SEVERE STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2024-11-01 |
| 4529 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-05 |
| 3460 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4152 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2013-10-29 |
| 3229 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-07 |
| 1329 | SEVERE FOREST FIRE | DR | Fire | 2000-05-13 |
| 3154 | SEVERE FIRE THREATS | EM | Fire | 2000-05-10 |
| 1202 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-01-29 |
Storm Events in New Mexico
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Chaves County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drought | 3,382 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| High Wind | 2,351 | 0 | 3 | $18.9M |
| Hail | 1,669 | 1 | 24 | $17.2M |
| Heavy Snow | 986 | 6 | 72 | $2.5M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 952 | 1 | 13 | $25.1M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
132
Total Paid
$8.2M
Avg Per Claim
$62.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 87.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$50.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively High
Strong Wind Relatively High
Winter Weather Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively High
Ice Storm Relatively High
Hail Relatively Low
Volcanic Activity Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Avalanche 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 Chaves 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 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
Chaves County's closest FEMA peer: Sumter County, FL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Chaves County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Chaves County: NRI composite 87.6 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar Major-disaster share
Chaves County: 5 of 9 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Chaves County shows 9 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 Chaves County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Chaves 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: 87.6 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 9. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Chaves County's NFIP claims file (132 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 Chaves County?
The most common disaster type in Chaves County is Flood, with 3 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Fire (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Chaves County's FEMA declaration record compare with the New Mexico average?
The typical New Mexico county has 12.5 FEMA declaration records; Chaves County has 9, or 28% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 57% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Chaves County received?
Chaves County has received 5 major disaster declarations, representing 56% of all 9 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Chaves County filed?
Chaves County has 132 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $8.2M in payments, with an average of $62.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Chaves County?
No. In Chaves County, Drought has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $36.6M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Chaves County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Chaves County was 2000, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1998 to 2025.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Chaves County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Chaves County, New Mexico has an overall risk score of 87.6 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively High; on community resilience, Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $50.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Chaves County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Chaves County as of the latest release is Drought (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Strong Wind (Relatively High) and Winter Weather (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 144 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 4,361 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 Chaves County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · New Mexico profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events