FEMA Records
10
Low volume
Montana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Chouteau County, MT
10 FEMA disaster declarations (1986-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 10
- FEMA declarations
- 8
- Major disasters
- 39
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Chouteau County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 10 declarations, more than 10% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 9% below the Montana county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 39%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 39%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 10
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 4
- 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 30015 · Chouteau County 10 declarations · rank 2901/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 10
- MAJOR-HEAVY 80%
- RANK-LOWER #2,901
- PHOTO-FINISH Cheyenne
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -9%
Nearest declaration peer: Cheyenne, NE (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Montana state profile
Chouteau County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Chouteau County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Cheyenne · near 10
Cheyenne · near
10 declarations
- Chouteau · this county 10
Chouteau · this county
10 declarations
- Clinton · near 10
Clinton · near
10 declarations
- Golden Valley · near 10
Golden Valley · near
10 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Chouteau County carries 10 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2901 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Chouteau County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Chouteau County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Chouteau County
10 10th percentile higher than 10% 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
Chouteau County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Chouteau County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $5.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Avalanche carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). 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 Chouteau County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 39.5/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $9.9M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively High) and community resilience (Relatively Low) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Avalanche carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 30 years here, based on 1 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 Montana county averages 11.0 federal declaration records, while Chouteau County has 10. The gap is 9% 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.
51 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Chouteau County, MT · 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
10 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.5x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
10 declarations (0.9x state county average of 11)
Major Disaster Share Very High
20/25
8 of 10 declarations are major disasters (80%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Chouteau County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Chouteau 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
80%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
39
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Chouteau 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Avalanche | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 30 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 9.1 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1,754 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 29 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 65 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 24 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 922 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 1.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 4
Biological 2
Flood 2
Hurricane 1
Fire 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Chouteau County's record, 40% 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 - 8 80.0%
of all 10 declarations
Emergency - 2 20.0%
of all 10 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 10 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 10 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4801 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-07-18 |
| 4508 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-31 |
| 3476 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4127 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2013-07-10 |
| 1996 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-06-17 |
| 1922 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-07-10 |
| 3253 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1340 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2000-08-30 |
| 1105 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND ICE JAMS | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-02-23 |
| 761 | HEAVY RAINS, LANDSLIDES & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-03-15 |
Storm Events in Montana
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Chouteau County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 3,735 | 1 | 2 | $5.3M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 2,396 | 5 | 24 | $15.1M |
| Hail | 2,015 | 0 | 0 | $4.1M |
| Winter Storm | 1,502 | 13 | 18 | $11.2M |
| Heavy Snow | 796 | 5 | 3 | $143.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 39.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$9.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Avalanche Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Strong Wind 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: Avalanche
Avalanche is the most geographically restricted hazard in the model, limited to steep terrain holding seasonal snow. Its exposure concentrates on mountain roads, rail corridors and backcountry recreation rather than on the built environment generally.
Worth noting for Chouteau County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Avalanche 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
Chouteau County's closest FEMA peer: Clark County, IL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Chouteau County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Chouteau County shows 10 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Chouteau County: 8 of 10 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Chouteau County: NRI composite 39.5 (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 Chouteau County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Chouteau 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: 39.5 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 10. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 10 FEMA declarations, Chouteau 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 Chouteau County?
The most common disaster type in Chouteau County is Severe Storm, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Flood (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Chouteau County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Montana average?
The typical Montana county has 11.0 FEMA declaration records; Chouteau County has 10, or 9% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 52% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Chouteau County received?
Chouteau County has received 8 major disaster declarations, representing 80% of all 10 disaster declarations.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Chouteau County?
No. In Chouteau County, Avalanche has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $5.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Chouteau County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Chouteau County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1986 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Chouteau County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Chouteau County, Montana has an overall risk score of 39.5 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively High; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $9.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Chouteau County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Chouteau County as of the latest release is Avalanche (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Cold Wave (Relatively Moderate) and Wildfire (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts avalanche here at roughly once every 30 years, drawn from 1 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 Chouteau County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Montana profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events