FEMA Records
5
Low volume
Wyoming · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Converse County, WY
5 FEMA disaster declarations (1978-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 5
- FEMA declarations
- 2
- Major disasters
- 31
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Start with the local benchmark for Converse County: 5 FEMA declaration records are 12% below the Wyoming county mean, even though the count is higher than 2% of counties in the national registry. On FEMA's distinct National Risk Index model, which combines expected loss with vulnerability and resilience, the county ranks safer than 31%.
- Safer than 31%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 5
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 13
- 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 56009 · Converse County 5 declarations · rank 3184/3,266
DECL-LIGHT · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-MODERATE · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-LIGHT 5
- MAJOR-LIGHT 40%
- RANK-LOWER #3,184
- PHOTO-FINISH Goshen
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-MODERATE Moderate
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-BELOW -12%
Nearest declaration peer: Goshen, WY (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Wyoming state profile
Converse County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Converse County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Carbon · near 5
Carbon · near
5 declarations
- Converse · this county 5
Converse · this county
5 declarations
- Goshen · near 5
Goshen · near
5 declarations
- Niobrara · near 5
Niobrara · near
5 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Converse County carries 5 FEMA declaration records, ranked 3184 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Converse County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Converse County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Converse County
5 2nd percentile higher than 2% 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
Converse County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Converse County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $4.7M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Wildfire 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 Converse County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 31.4/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $9.7M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively Moderate) and community resilience (Very Low) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Wildfire carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 277 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 13 claims and $112.6K paid in total. PlainHazard calls 1-49 claims a light registry record, a label for this dataset rather than a finding that flood exposure is low. A short claims history can also reflect insurance take-up, the period covered, or losses that were never insured.
Start with the state benchmark: a Wyoming county averages 5.7 federal declaration records, while Converse County has 5. The gap is 12% 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.
33 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Converse County, WY · 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
4/30
5 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.2x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
5 declarations (0.9x state county average of 6)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
10/25
2 of 5 declarations are major disasters (40%)
Hazard Diversity Moderate
8/20
3 different disaster types declared in Converse County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Converse 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
40%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
31
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Converse 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 Moderate | roughly once every 277 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 19 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.4 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | an average of 2.9 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 491 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 42 times per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 104 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 65 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Biological 2
Fire 2
Flood 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Converse County's record, 40% 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 - 2 40.0%
of all 5 declarations
Fire Management - 2 40.0%
of all 5 declarations
Emergency - 1 20.0%
of all 5 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 5 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 5 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4535 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-11 |
| 3479 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 2992 | ARAPAHOE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2012-06-29 |
| 2427 | WY-HENSEL FIRE-06/07/02 | FM | Fire | 2002-06-18 |
| 557 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING & MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 1978-05-29 |
Storm Events in Wyoming
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Converse County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 5,115 | 0 | 21 | $1.5M |
| Winter Storm | 2,212 | 1 | 41 | $115.0K |
| Hail | 1,811 | 0 | 0 | $5.5M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 1,137 | 1 | 12 | $916.3K |
| Winter Weather | 616 | 3 | 7 | $100.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
13
Total Paid
$112.6K
Avg Per Claim
$8.7K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 31.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$9.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Landslide Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Tornado Very Low
Drought Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Avalanche Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Strong Wind 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 Converse County the two measures on this page point the same way: Wildfire is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Moderate), 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
Converse County's closest FEMA peer: Keweenaw County, MI
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Converse County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Converse County shows 5 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Converse County: 2 of 5 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Converse County: NRI composite 31.4 (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 Converse County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Converse 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: 31.4 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 5. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
FEMA's National Risk Index flags Wildfire as the top modeled exposure here (Relatively Moderate); the guide explains how that model differs from declaration counts.
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 Converse County?
The most common disaster type in Converse County is Fire, with 2 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Flood (1).
How does Converse County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Wyoming average?
The typical Wyoming county has 5.7 FEMA declaration records; Converse County has 5, or 12% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 76% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Converse County received?
Converse County has received 2 major disaster declarations, representing 40% of all 5 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Converse County filed?
Converse County has 13 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $112.6K in payments, with an average of $8.7K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Converse County?
No. In Converse County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $4.7M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Converse County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Converse County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1978 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Converse County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Converse County, Wyoming has an overall risk score of 31.4 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Moderate and community resilience is Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $9.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Converse County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Converse County is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate) and Cold Wave (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 277 years. 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 Converse County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Wyoming profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events