FEMA Records
21
Above median
Iowa · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Clay County, IA
21 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 21
- FEMA declarations
- 18
- Major disasters
- 36
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Clay County. Its 21 FEMA declarations are 9% above the Iowa county mean and exceed the count for 52% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 36%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 36%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 21
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 78
- 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 19041 · Clay County 21 declarations · rank 1511/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 21
- MAJOR-HEAVY 86%
- RANK-LOWER #1,511
- PHOTO-FINISH Montgomery
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-ABOVE +9%
Nearest declaration peer: Montgomery, IN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Iowa state profile
Clay County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Clay County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Atascosa · near 21
Atascosa · near
21 declarations
- Clay · this county 21
Clay · this county
21 declarations
- Mason · near 21
Mason · near
21 declarations
- Montgomery · near 21
Montgomery · near
21 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Clay County carries 21 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1511 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Clay County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Clay County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Clay County
21 Top 48% higher than 52% 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
Clay County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Clay County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $11.0M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Hail 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 Clay County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 78 paid claims, totaling $5.5M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $70.3K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Clay County's 21 federal records stand 9% above the Iowa county mean of 19.3. 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
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 36.4/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Relatively Low (roughly $17.1M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very Low) and community resilience (Relatively High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Hail carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 5.1 times per year here, based on 194 historical events on record.
65 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Clay 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) High
15/30
21 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
14/25
21 declarations (1.1x state county average of 19)
Major Disaster Share Very High
21/25
18 of 21 declarations are major disasters (86%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Clay County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Clay 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
36
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Clay 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5.1 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 18 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 24 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 3.6 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 10 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 3.6 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 16 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 2,245 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 4.8 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,427 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 40 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 9
Flood 7
Biological 2
Snowstorm 1
Hurricane 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Clay County's record, 43% 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 - 18 85.7%
of all 21 declarations
Emergency - 3 14.3%
of all 21 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 3 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 2 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 21 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 21 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4796 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-06-24 |
| 4784 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-05-24 |
| 4483 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-23 |
| 3480 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4421 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-03-23 |
| 4386 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2018-08-20 |
| 4184 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2014-07-24 |
| 4126 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2013-07-02 |
| 4016 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-08-24 |
| 1930 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-07-29 |
| 1880 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-03-02 |
| 1877 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-02-25 |
| 3275 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2007-03-30 |
| 3239 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1518 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-05-25 |
| 1230 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1998-07-02 |
| 996 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-09 |
| 928 | ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 1991-12-26 |
| 269 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-08-14 |
| 259 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-04-25 |
Show 1 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 193 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1965-04-22 |
Storm Events in Iowa
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Clay 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
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
78
Total Paid
$5.5M
Avg Per Claim
$70.3K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 36.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$17.1M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hail Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Earthquake 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: Hail
Hail is among the most expensive hazards in the model relative to how little it threatens life. It concentrates on roofs, vehicles and crops, and a single severe storm can generate an insurance loss across a metropolitan area without a single injury.
For Clay County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hail is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Moderate), and Severe Storm declarations also lead its federal record. Where the model and the declaration history agree, the reading is comparatively straightforward, the hazard is both expected and repeatedly realised.
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
Clay County's closest FEMA peer: Beltrami County, MN
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Clay County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Clay County shows 21 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Clay County: 18 of 21 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Clay County: NRI composite 36.4 (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 Clay County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Clay 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: 36.4 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 21. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Clay County's NFIP claims file (78 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 Clay County?
The most common disaster type in Clay County is Severe Storm, with 9 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (7), Biological (2), Snowstorm (1).
How does Clay County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Iowa average?
FEMA lists 21 declaration records for Clay County. That is 9% above the Iowa county mean of 19.3. Its count is also 1% 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 Clay County received?
Clay County has received 18 major disaster declarations, representing 86% of all 21 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Clay County filed?
Clay County has 78 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $5.5M in payments, with an average of $70.3K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Clay County?
No. In Clay County, Hail has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $11.0M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Clay County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Clay County was 2010, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Clay County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Clay County, Iowa has an overall risk score of 36.4 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 Relatively Low, representing $17.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Clay County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Clay County is Hail (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate) and Drought (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hail here at an average of 5.1 times per year, drawn from 194 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.
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 Clay County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Iowa profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events