FEMA Records
9
Low volume
Illinois · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Cumberland County, IL
9 FEMA disaster declarations (1974-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 9
- FEMA declarations
- 7
- Major disasters
- 26
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Start with the local benchmark for Cumberland County: 9 FEMA declaration records are 30% below the Illinois county mean, even though the count is higher than 8% 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 26%.
- Safer than 26%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 9
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 2
- 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 17035 · Cumberland County 9 declarations · rank 2993/3,266
DECL-LIGHT · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-MODERATE · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-LIGHT 9
- MAJOR-MID 78%
- RANK-LOWER #2,993
- PHOTO-FINISH Fulton
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-MODERATE Moderate
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -30%
Nearest declaration peer: Fulton, OH (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Illinois state profile
Cumberland County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Cumberland County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Cumberland · this county 9
Cumberland · this county
9 declarations
- Fulton · near 9
Fulton · near
9 declarations
- Gallatin · near 9
Gallatin · near
9 declarations
- Hillsdale · near 9
Hillsdale · near
9 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Cumberland County carries 9 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2993 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Cumberland County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Cumberland County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Cumberland County
9 8th percentile higher than 8% 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
Cumberland County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Cumberland County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $3.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Drought 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 Cumberland County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 25.9/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $7.4M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Relatively High social-vulnerability score and Very High community-resilience score. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Drought carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 1.7 modeled event-days per year here, based on 42 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 2 claims and $12.6K 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 Illinois county averages 12.9 federal declaration records, while Cumberland County has 9. The gap is 30% 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
Cumberland 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) Low
7/30
9 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.4x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
9/25
9 declarations (0.7x state county average of 13)
Major Disaster Share Very High
19/25
7 of 9 declarations are major disasters (78%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Cumberland County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Cumberland 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
78%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
26
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Cumberland 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 1.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 245 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 7.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 4.5 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 7.4 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 1.9 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 2.7 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 35 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 48 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 49,115 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 3
Biological 2
Snowstorm 1
Hurricane 1
Tornado 1
Flood 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Cumberland 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 - 7 77.8%
of all 9 declarations
Emergency - 2 22.2%
of all 9 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 9 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 9 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 1960 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2011-03-17 |
| 1771 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-06-24 |
| 3230 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-07 |
| 1416 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 2002-05-21 |
| 1112 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-05-06 |
| 438 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1974-06-10 |
Storm Events in Illinois
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Cumberland 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
2
Total Paid
$12.6K
Avg Per Claim
$6.3K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 25.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$7.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Lightning Very Low
Wildfire 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: Drought
Drought is the slowest of the modeled hazards and the least visible: it does its damage to agriculture, water supply and soil over seasons rather than hours, so it rarely produces the kind of single-day damage that drives a disaster declaration. FEMA scores it in event-days per year rather than discrete events for exactly that reason.
Worth noting for Cumberland County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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
Cumberland County's closest FEMA peer: Sedgwick County, CO
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Cumberland County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Cumberland County shows 9 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Cumberland County: 7 of 9 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Cumberland County: NRI composite 25.9 (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 Cumberland County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Cumberland 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: 25.9 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 9. 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 Drought 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 Cumberland County?
The most common disaster type in Cumberland County is Severe Storm, with 3 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Snowstorm (1), Hurricane (1).
How does Cumberland County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Illinois average?
The typical Illinois county has 12.9 FEMA declaration records; Cumberland County has 9, or 30% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 57% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Cumberland County received?
Cumberland County has received 7 major disaster declarations, representing 78% of all 9 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Cumberland County filed?
Cumberland County has 2 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $12.6K in payments, with an average of $6.3K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Cumberland County?
No. In Cumberland County, Drought has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $3.3M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Cumberland County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Cumberland County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1974 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Cumberland County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Cumberland County, Illinois has an overall risk score of 25.9 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively High; on community resilience, Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $7.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Cumberland County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Cumberland County as of the latest release is Drought (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Earthquake (Relatively Low) and Landslide (Very Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 1.7 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 42 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 Cumberland County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Illinois profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events