FEMA Records
20
Above median
Nebraska · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Colfax County, NE
20 FEMA disaster declarations (1966-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 20
- FEMA declarations
- 18
- Major disasters
- 29
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Colfax County. Its 20 FEMA declarations are 19% above the Nebraska county mean and exceed the count for 46% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 29%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 29%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 20
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 171
- 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 31037 · Colfax County 20 declarations · rank 1600/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 20
- MAJOR-HEAVY 90%
- RANK-LOWER #1,600
- PHOTO-FINISH Monona
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +19%
Nearest declaration peer: Monona, IA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Nebraska state profile
Colfax County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Colfax County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Cleveland · near 20
Cleveland · near
20 declarations
- Colfax · this county 20
Colfax · this county
20 declarations
- Monona · near 20
Monona · near
20 declarations
- Tallapoosa · near 20
Tallapoosa · near
20 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Colfax County carries 20 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1600 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Colfax County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Colfax County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Colfax County
20 46th percentile higher than 46% 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
Colfax County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Colfax County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $4.9M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very Low), 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 Colfax County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 171 paid claims, totaling $1.8M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $10.8K 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. Colfax County's 20 federal records stand 19% above the Nebraska county mean of 16.8. 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
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 28.6/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $12.6M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Very Low social-vulnerability score and Very Low community-resilience score. 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 6.8 times per year here, based on 259 historical events on record.
67 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Colfax County, NE · 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
14/30
20 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
15/25
20 declarations (1.2x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share Very High
23/25
18 of 20 declarations are major disasters (90%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Colfax County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Colfax 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
90%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
29
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Colfax 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 6.8 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 41 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.1 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,402 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 14 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 5.4 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 14 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 5.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 44 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,587 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 9
Severe Storm 6
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Hurricane 1
Tornado 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Colfax County's record, 45% 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 - 18 90.0%
of all 20 declarations
Emergency - 2 10.0%
of all 20 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 3 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 2 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1984 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1971 | 1 | |
| 1967 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1966 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 20 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 20 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4868 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Winter Storm | 2025-05-21 |
| 4808 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-08-20 |
| 4521 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-04 |
| 3483 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4420 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-03-21 |
| 4387 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2018-08-27 |
| 1924 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-07-15 |
| 1902 | SEVERE STORMS, ICE JAMS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2010-04-21 |
| 1878 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-02-25 |
| 1770 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-06-20 |
| 3245 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUEES | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 998 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-19 |
| 983 | ICE JAMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-04-02 |
| 908 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1991-05-28 |
| 873 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-07-04 |
| 716 | TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 1984-07-03 |
| 552 | STORMS, ICE JAMS, SNOWMELT & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1978-03-24 |
| 303 | FLOODS | DR | Flood | 1971-02-23 |
| 228 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1967-07-18 |
| 221 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1966-08-31 |
Storm Events in Nebraska
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Colfax County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 6,079 | 0 | 2 | $237.7M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,757 | 3 | 19 | $228.1M |
| Drought | 1,658 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| High Wind | 1,647 | 1 | 1 | $22.1M |
| Winter Storm | 1,155 | 0 | 2 | $335.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
171
Total Paid
$1.8M
Avg Per Claim
$10.8K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 28.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$12.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hail Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Very Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Earthquake 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.
Worth noting for Colfax County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Hail carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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
Colfax County's closest FEMA peer: Coos County, OR
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Colfax County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Colfax County shows 20 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Colfax County: 18 of 20 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Colfax County: NRI composite 28.6 (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 Colfax County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Colfax 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: 28.6 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 20. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Colfax County's NFIP claims file (171 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 Colfax County?
The most common disaster type in Colfax County is Flood, with 9 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (6), Biological (2), Winter Storm (1).
How does Colfax County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Nebraska average?
FEMA lists 20 declaration records for Colfax County. That is 19% above the Nebraska county mean of 16.8. Its count is also 3% below 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 Colfax County received?
Colfax County has received 18 major disaster declarations, representing 90% of all 20 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Colfax County filed?
Colfax County has 171 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $1.8M in payments, with an average of $10.8K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Colfax County?
No. In Colfax County, Hail has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $4.9M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Colfax County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Colfax County was 2010, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1966 to 2025.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Colfax County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Colfax County, Nebraska has an overall risk score of 28.6 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $12.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Colfax County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Colfax County is Hail (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Moderate) and Strong Wind (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hail here at an average of 6.8 times per year, drawn from 259 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.
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 Colfax County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Nebraska profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events