FEMA Records
16
Below median
Iowa · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Clarke County, IA
16 FEMA disaster declarations (1969-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 16
- FEMA declarations
- 14
- Major disasters
- 18
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Clarke 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 17% below the Iowa county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 18%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 18%
- 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
- 6
- flood 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 19039 · Clarke County 16 declarations · rank 2276/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 16
- MAJOR-HEAVY 88%
- RANK-LOWER #2,276
- PHOTO-FINISH Greene
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -17%
Nearest declaration peer: Greene, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Iowa state profile
Clarke County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Clarke County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Clarke · this county 16
Clarke · 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 Clarke County carries 16 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2276 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Clarke County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Clarke County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Clarke 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
Clarke County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Clarke County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 18.4/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $9.9M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Very Low social-vulnerability score and Relatively High community-resilience score. 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 10 modeled event-days per year here, based on 280 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 Clarke County has 16. The gap is 17% 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
Clarke 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
12/30
16 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25
16 declarations (0.8x state county average of 19)
Major Disaster Share Very High
22/25
14 of 16 declarations are major disasters (88%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Clarke County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Clarke 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
88%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
18
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Clarke 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 | 10 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 4.8 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 7.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 5.8 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 878 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 5.1 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 12 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,381 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | an average of 1.8 times per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 45 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 174 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 6
Severe Storm 4
Biological 2
Tornado 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
Hurricane 1
Snowstorm 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Clarke County's record, 38% 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 - 14 87.5%
of all 16 declarations
Emergency - 2 12.5%
of all 16 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 2 | |
| 1993 | 2 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4779 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 2024-05-14 |
| 4483 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-23 |
| 3480 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4181 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2014-07-14 |
| 1930 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-07-29 |
| 1763 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-05-27 |
| 1737 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2008-01-04 |
| 1705 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-05-25 |
| 3239 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1230 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1998-07-02 |
| 1191 | SEVERE SNOWSTORMS | DR | Snowstorm | 1997-11-20 |
| 996 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-09 |
| 965 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1992-10-02 |
| 868 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1990-05-26 |
| 443 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1974-06-24 |
| 269 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-08-14 |
Storm Events in Iowa
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Clarke 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
Very Low
Score: 18.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$9.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively High
Landslide Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Hurricane 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 Clarke 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
Clarke County's closest FEMA peer: Benewah County, ID
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Clarke County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Clarke County shows 16 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Clarke County: 14 of 16 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Clarke County: NRI composite 18.4 (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 Clarke County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Clarke 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: 18.4 (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, Clarke 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 Clarke County?
The most common disaster type in Clarke County is Flood, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (4), Biological (2), Tornado (1).
How does Clarke County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Iowa average?
The typical Iowa county has 19.3 FEMA declaration records; Clarke County has 16, or 17% 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 Clarke County received?
Clarke County has received 14 major disaster declarations, representing 88% of all 16 disaster declarations.
What was the worst year for disasters in Clarke County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Clarke County was 1993, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1969 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Clarke County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Clarke County, Iowa has an overall risk score of 18.4 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $9.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Clarke County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Clarke County is Drought (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Landslide (Relatively Low) and Cold Wave (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 10 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 280 historical events on record. 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.
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 Clarke County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Iowa profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events