FEMA Records
14
Low volume
Arizona · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Cochise County, AZ
14 FEMA disaster declarations (1970-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 14
- FEMA declarations
- 6
- Major disasters
- 93
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Cochise County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 14 declarations, more than 20% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 16% below the Arizona county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 7%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 7%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 14
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 114
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Fire Management Assistance (FM) records, which are not presidential disaster declarations, alongside Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 04003 · Cochise County 14 declarations · rank 2602/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 14
- MAJOR-LIGHT 43%
- RANK-LOWER #2,602
- PHOTO-FINISH Pulaski
- NRI-MID 93
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-BELOW -16%
Nearest declaration peer: Pulaski, IL (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Arizona state profile
Cochise County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Cochise County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Cochise · this county 14
Cochise · this county
14 declarations
- Franklin (city) · near 14
Franklin (city) · near
14 declarations
- Harris · near 14
Harris · near
14 declarations
- Pulaski · near 14
Pulaski · near
14 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Cochise County carries 14 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2602 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Cochise County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Cochise County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Cochise County
14 20th percentile higher than 20% 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
Cochise County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Cochise County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $44.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Wildfire 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 Cochise County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 114 paid claims, totaling $623.3K. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $5.5K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Arizona county averages 16.7 federal declaration records, while Cochise County has 14. The gap is 16% 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 92.8/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $90.8M 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, Wildfire stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 112 years here.
47 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Cochise County, AZ · 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
10/30
14 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
14 declarations (0.8x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
11/25
6 of 14 declarations are major disasters (43%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Cochise County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Cochise 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
43%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
93
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Cochise 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 High | roughly once every 112 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively High | 2.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Very High | an average of 56 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively High | an average of 6.2 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 76 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 562 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 35 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 4.3 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 137 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 5
Flood 3
Biological 2
Severe Storm 2
Hurricane 1
Drought 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Cochise County's record, 36% of its declarations. Wildfire is the one hazard here with its own dedicated federal instrument: the Fire Management Assistance Grant, which appears in this data as an FM record. An FMAG can be authorised while a fire is still burning, on a timescale of hours, because its purpose is to reimburse the cost of fighting a fire that threatens to become a major disaster.
That distinction matters when comparing counties. An FM declaration is not a presidential major disaster declaration and does not carry the same assistance programmes, so a fire-heavy county's total is not directly comparable with a hurricane-heavy county's total unless the declaration types are separated, which is why they are listed separately on this page.
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 - 6 42.9%
of all 14 declarations
Fire Management - 5 35.7%
of all 14 declarations
Emergency - 3 21.4%
of all 14 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1984 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1970 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 14 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 14 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4524 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-04 |
| 3442 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 5183 | LIZARD FIRE | FM | Fire | 2017-06-11 |
| 2919 | MONUMENT FIRE | FM | Fire | 2011-06-12 |
| 2907 | HORSESHOE TWO FIRE | FM | Fire | 2011-05-09 |
| 2821 | MULE PASS FIRE | FM | Fire | 2009-05-18 |
| 3241 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-12 |
| 2471 | ASH FIRE | FM | Fire | 2003-06-21 |
| 1347 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-10-27 |
| 1304 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, HIGH WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-10-15 |
| 977 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-01-19 |
| 691 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1983-10-05 |
| 3038 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-04-15 |
| 294 | HEAVY RAINS & FLASH | DR | Flood | 1970-09-22 |
Storm Events in Arizona
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Cochise County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | 2,094 | 45 | 18 | $149.9M |
| Excessive Heat | 1,812 | 1,497 | 120 | $0 |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 1,680 | 3 | 19 | $75.9M |
| Heat | 727 | 1,206 | 39 | $0 |
| High Wind | 446 | 0 | 0 | $734.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
114
Total Paid
$623.3K
Avg Per Claim
$5.5K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 92.8/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$90.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively High
Heat Wave Relatively High
Lightning Very High
Riverine Flooding Relatively High
Drought Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Landslide Very Low
Avalanche Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Hail Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Cold Wave 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.
For Cochise County the two measures on this page point the same way: Wildfire is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively High), and Fire 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
Cochise County's closest FEMA peer: Washington County, UT
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Cochise County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Cochise County: NRI composite 92.8 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar Major-disaster share
Cochise County: 6 of 14 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Cochise County shows 14 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
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 Cochise County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Cochise 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: 92.8 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 14. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Cochise County's NFIP claims file (114 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 Cochise County?
The most common disaster type in Cochise County is Fire, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (3), Biological (2), Severe Storm (2).
How does Cochise County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Arizona average?
The typical Arizona county has 16.7 FEMA declaration records; Cochise County has 14, or 16% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 32% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Cochise County received?
Cochise County has received 6 major disaster declarations, representing 43% of all 14 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Cochise County filed?
Cochise County has 114 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $623.3K in payments, with an average of $5.5K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Cochise County?
No. In Cochise County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $44.3M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Cochise County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Cochise County was 2011, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1970 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Cochise County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Cochise County, Arizona has an overall risk score of 92.8 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively High, while community resilience comes in at Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $90.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Cochise County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Cochise County is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Heat Wave (Relatively High) and Lightning (Very High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 112 years. 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 Cochise County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Arizona profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events