FEMA Records
24
Above median
Illinois · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Cook County, IL
24 FEMA disaster declarations (1967-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very High. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 24
- FEMA declarations
- 19
- Major disasters
- 100
- NRI risk · Very High
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Cook County. Its 24 FEMA declarations are 87% above the Illinois county mean and exceed the count for 66% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 1%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 1%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very High
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 24
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 15,220
- 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 17031 · Cook County 24 declarations · rank 1052/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-HIGH · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-HIGH
- DECL-HEAVY 24
- MAJOR-MID 79%
- RANK-LOWER #1,052
- PHOTO-FINISH Eddy
- NRI-HIGH Very High
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-HIGH +87%
Nearest declaration peer: Eddy, ND (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Illinois state profile
Cook County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Cook County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Cook · this county 24
Cook · this county
24 declarations
- Deuel · near 24
Deuel · near
24 declarations
- Eddy · near 24
Eddy · near
24 declarations
- Wichita · near 24
Wichita · near
24 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Cook County carries 24 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1052 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Cook County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Cook County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Cook County
24 Top 34% higher than 66% 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
Cook County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Cook County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $1.1B Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Cold Wave carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Very 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 Cook County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 15,220 claims and $139.6M in payments. PlainHazard labels 500 or more claims a heavy registry record; that is a reporting bucket, not an official FEMA risk grade. The average paid claim was $9.2K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Cook County's 24 federal records stand 87% above the Illinois county mean of 12.9. 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 sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 100.0/100 (Very High). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very High (roughly $2.4B in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively High and community resilience Relatively High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Cold Wave stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 4.3 times per year here, based on 47 historical events on record.
75 /100
Historical Activity Index
Very High historical activity
Cook County, IL · 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
17/30
24 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.2x national county average)
County Disaster Density Very High
23/25
24 declarations (1.9x state county average of 13)
Major Disaster Share Very High
20/25
19 of 24 declarations are major disasters (79%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Cook County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Cook 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
79%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
100
Very High
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Cook 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Wave | Very High | an average of 4.3 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very High | an average of 15 times per year |
| Tornado | Very High | an average of 1 time per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very High | an average of 5.9 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very High | 2.9 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Very High | an average of 5.7 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively High | an average of 4 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively High | roughly once every 782 years |
| Lightning | Very High | an average of 42 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very High | roughly once every 2 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 4,200 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 108 years |
| Coastal Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 83 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 3.9 modeled event-days per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 8
Severe Storm 8
Snowstorm 4
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Tornado 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Cook County's record, 33% 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 - 19 79.2%
of all 24 declarations
Emergency - 5 20.8%
of all 24 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1987 | 2 | |
Show 6 earlier declaration years
| 1981 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
| 1967 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 24 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 24 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4819 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODNG | DR | Flood | 2024-09-20 |
| 4749 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2023-11-20 |
| 4728 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-08-15 |
| 4489 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-26 |
| 3435 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4116 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2013-05-10 |
| 1960 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2011-03-17 |
| 1935 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-08-19 |
| 1800 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-10-03 |
| 1729 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-09-25 |
| 3230 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-07 |
| 3161 | ILLINOIS WINTER SNOW STORMS | EM | Snowstorm | 2001-01-17 |
| 3134 | IL-WINTER STORM 1/1/99 | EM | Snowstorm | 1999-01-08 |
| 1188 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-09-17 |
| 1129 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-07-25 |
| 997 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-09 |
| 798 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1987-08-21 |
| 776 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-10-07 |
| 643 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING & TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1981-06-30 |
| 3068 | BLIZZARDS & SNOWSTORMS | EM | Snowstorm | 1979-01-16 |
Show 4 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 509 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1976-06-18 |
| 373 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-04-26 |
| 351 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-09-04 |
| 227 | TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1967-04-25 |
Storm Events in Illinois
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Cook County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 7,218 | 9 | 67 | $46.0M |
| Hail | 3,195 | 0 | 0 | $27.1M |
| Winter Weather | 1,363 | 14 | 49 | $1.8M |
| Flood | 1,221 | 14 | 11 | $84.3M |
| Flash Flood | 1,133 | 11 | 3 | $1.1B |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
15,220
Total Paid
$139.6M
Avg Per Claim
$9.2K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very High
Score: 100.0/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very High
$2.4B/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Very High
Winter Weather Very High
Tornado Very High
Riverine Flooding Very High
Heat Wave Very High
Strong Wind Very High
Hail Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively High
Lightning Very High
Ice Storm Very High
Landslide Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Coastal Flooding Relatively Low
Drought 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: Cold Wave
Cold Wave measures exposure to extreme cold rather than to snow. Its harm is concentrated in health effects, burst infrastructure and energy demand spikes, and it falls hardest where the building stock and the grid were not built with sustained cold in mind.
Worth noting for Cook County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave carries the highest modeled rating (Very High), while the county's declaration history is led by Severe Storm. 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
Cook County's closest FEMA peer: McLean County, ND
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Cook County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Cook County shows 24 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Cook County: 19 of 24 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Cook County: NRI composite 100.0 (Very High).
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 Cook County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Cook 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: 100.0 (Very High).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 24. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Cook County's NFIP claims file (15,220 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 Cook County?
The most common disaster type in Cook County is Severe Storm, with 8 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (8), Snowstorm (4), Biological (2).
How does Cook County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Illinois average?
FEMA lists 24 declaration records for Cook County. That is 87% above the Illinois county mean of 12.9. Its count is also 16% 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 Cook County received?
Cook County has received 19 major disaster declarations, representing 79% of all 24 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Cook County filed?
Cook County has 15,220 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $139.6M in payments, with an average of $9.2K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Cook County?
No. In Cook County, Cold Wave has the highest National Risk Index rating (Very High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $1.1B. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Cook County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Cook County was 1987, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1967 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Cook County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Cook County, Illinois has an overall risk score of 100.0 out of 100 (Very High). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively High and community resilience is Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very High, representing $2.4B in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Cook County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Cook County is Cold Wave (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Winter Weather (Very High) and Tornado (Very High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 4.3 times per year, drawn from 47 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 Cook County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Illinois profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events