FEMA Records
13
Low volume
Minnesota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Crow Wing County, MN
13 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2022), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 13
- FEMA declarations
- 9
- Major disasters
- 78
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Crow Wing County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 13 declarations, more than 17% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 27% below the Minnesota county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 22%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 22%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 13
- 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 27035 · Crow Wing County 13 declarations · rank 2693/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 13
- MAJOR-MID 69%
- RANK-LOWER #2,693
- PHOTO-FINISH Clarke
- NRI-LOW 78
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -27%
Nearest declaration peer: Clarke, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Minnesota state profile
Crow Wing County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Crow Wing County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Bristol (city) · near 13
Bristol (city) · near
13 declarations
- Clarke · near 13
Clarke · near
13 declarations
- Crow Wing · this county 13
Crow Wing · this county
13 declarations
- Douglas · near 13
Douglas · near
13 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Crow Wing County carries 13 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2693 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Crow Wing County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Crow Wing County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Crow Wing County
13 17th percentile higher than 17% 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
Crow Wing County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Crow Wing County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $25.6M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Cold Wave 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 Crow Wing County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 77.5/100 (Relatively Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $39.5M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Low and community resilience Very High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Cold Wave stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 14 times per year here, based on 271 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 13 claims and $71.7K 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 Minnesota county averages 17.7 federal declaration records, while Crow Wing County has 13. The gap is 27% 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.
50 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Crow Wing County, MN · 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
9/30
13 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.6x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
9/25
13 declarations (0.7x state county average of 18)
Major Disaster Share High
17/25
9 of 13 declarations are major disasters (69%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Crow Wing County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Crow Wing 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
69%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
78
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Crow Wing 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 | Relatively High | an average of 14 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.9 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1,392 years |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 30 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 17 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 1.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 12 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 10,526 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 5
Severe Storm 3
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Fire 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Crow Wing County's record, 38% 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 - 9 69.2%
of all 13 declarations
Emergency - 3 23.1%
of all 13 declarations
Fire Management - 1 7.7%
of all 13 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
| 1966 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 13 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 13 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4666 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-08-09 |
| 4531 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-07 |
| 3453 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4069 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2012-07-06 |
| 3242 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 2409 | MN - BY-PASS FIRE - 05/31/2002 | FM | Fire | 2002-06-01 |
| 1370 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Flood | 2001-05-16 |
| 1064 | SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS, WINDS, FLOODING, TORNADOES, AND HEAT | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-08-18 |
| 3013 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1976-06-17 |
| 347 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-08-01 |
| 255 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-04-18 |
| 215 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1966-03-22 |
| 188 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1965-04-11 |
Storm Events in Minnesota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Crow Wing County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,420 | 13 | 25 | $68.2M |
| Hail | 4,203 | 0 | 0 | $34.5M |
| Extreme Cold/Wind Chill | 1,789 | 7 | 4 | $55.0K |
| Winter Storm | 1,695 | 2 | 17 | $10.0M |
| Heavy Snow | 1,190 | 9 | 14 | $1.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
13
Total Paid
$71.7K
Avg Per Claim
$5.5K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 77.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$39.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Relatively High
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Drought Relatively 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: 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 Crow Wing County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively High), 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
Crow Wing County's closest FEMA peer: Mayes County, OK
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Crow Wing County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Crow Wing County: NRI composite 77.5 (Relatively Low).
Similar Major-disaster share
Crow Wing County: 9 of 13 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Crow Wing County shows 13 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
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 Crow Wing County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Crow Wing 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: 77.5 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 13. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 13 FEMA declarations, Crow Wing County sits in the high-volume declaration band - see how that count ranks against other U.S. counties.
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 Crow Wing County?
The most common disaster type in Crow Wing County is Flood, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (3), Biological (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Crow Wing County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Minnesota average?
The typical Minnesota county has 17.7 FEMA declaration records; Crow Wing County has 13, or 27% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 37% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Crow Wing County received?
Crow Wing County has received 9 major disaster declarations, representing 69% of all 13 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Crow Wing County filed?
Crow Wing County has 13 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $71.7K in payments, with an average of $5.5K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Crow Wing County?
No. In Crow Wing County, Cold Wave has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $25.6M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Crow Wing County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Crow Wing County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2022.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Crow Wing County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Crow Wing County, Minnesota has an overall risk score of 77.5 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Low; on community resilience, Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $39.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Crow Wing County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Crow Wing County is Cold Wave (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Riverine Flooding (Relatively Moderate) and Strong Wind (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 14 times per year, drawn from 271 historical events on record. FEMA derives these ratings from historical event frequency, the assets exposed, and the community's vulnerability profile.
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 Crow Wing County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Minnesota profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events