FEMA Records
13
Low volume
Colorado · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Custer County, CO
13 FEMA disaster declarations (1999-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 13
- FEMA declarations
- 3
- Major disasters
- 4
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Custer County. Its 13 FEMA declarations are 27% above the Colorado county mean and exceed the count for 17% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 4%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 4%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 13
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 1
- 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 08027 · Custer County 13 declarations · rank 2674/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 13
- MAJOR-LIGHT 23%
- RANK-LOWER #2,674
- PHOTO-FINISH Clarke
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-ABOVE +27%
Nearest declaration peer: Clarke, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Colorado state profile
Custer County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Custer 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
- Custer · this county 13
Custer · this county
13 declarations
- Douglas · near 13
Douglas · near
13 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Custer County carries 13 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2674 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Custer County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Custer County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Custer 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
Custer County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Custer County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $1.9M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Landslide carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low). 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 Custer County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits at the very bottom of FEMA's National Risk Index nationally, a composite score of 3.9/100 (rated Very Low). Projected losses are minimal, Expected Annual Loss reads Very Low (roughly $4.1M in annualized losses), and the county's exposure is shaped by a Very Low social-vulnerability profile and Relatively High community resilience. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Landslide, only reaches Relatively Low on FEMA's scale, none of the 18 modeled hazards stand out here. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 4 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 1 claim and $769 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.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Custer County's 13 federal records stand 27% above the Colorado county mean of 10.2. 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.
44 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Custer County, CO · 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 High
16/25
13 declarations (1.3x state county average of 10)
Major Disaster Share Low
6/25
3 of 13 declarations are major disasters (23%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Custer County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Custer 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
23%
Few majors
NRI risk score
4
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Custer 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 601 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 61 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 69 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 2.6 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 18 times per year |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,290 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 9 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.1 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 7
Biological 2
Snowstorm 2
Coastal Storm 1
Severe Storm 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Custer County's record, 54% 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).
Fire Management - 6 46.2%
of all 13 declarations
Emergency - 4 30.8%
of all 13 declarations
Major Disaster - 3 23.1%
of all 13 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 2 | |
| 1999 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5642 | ASPEN ACRES FIRE | FM | Fire | 2026-06-29 |
| 4498 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-28 |
| 3436 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 5157 | JUNKINS FIRE | FM | Fire | 2016-10-17 |
| 5022 | WETMORE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2012-10-23 |
| 2923 | DUCKETT FIRE | FM | Fire | 2011-06-16 |
| 3270 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2007-01-07 |
| 3224 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-05 |
| 2566 | MASON FIRE | FM | Fire | 2005-07-10 |
| 3185 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2003-04-09 |
| 1421 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2002-06-19 |
| 2401 | CUERNO VERDE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2002-05-01 |
| 1276 | CO-FLOODING 4/30/99 | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-05-17 |
Storm Events in Colorado
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Custer County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 4,913 | 0 | 100 | $2.9B |
| Winter Weather | 2,620 | 3 | 23 | $22.5K |
| High Wind | 1,992 | 5 | 6 | $20.9M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 1,741 | 2 | 11 | $5.4M |
| Winter Storm | 1,497 | 0 | 0 | $848.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
1
Total Paid
$769
Avg Per Claim
$769
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 3.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$4.1M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Landslide Relatively Low
Wildfire Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Low
Hail Very Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Avalanche Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Ice Storm 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: Landslide
Landslide risk is a function of slope, soil and water, so it is usually a SECOND-ORDER hazard: it is triggered by the rainfall, snowmelt, wildfire burn scars or seismic shaking that came first. That is why a county can carry high landslide exposure whose realized damage is recorded under a flood or storm declaration instead.
Worth noting for Custer County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Landslide carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Low), while the county's declaration history is led by Fire. 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
Custer County's closest FEMA peer: Clay County, NC
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Custer County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Custer County shows 13 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Custer County: 3 of 13 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Custer County: NRI composite 3.9 (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 Custer County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Custer 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: 3.9 (Very 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, Custer 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 Custer County?
The most common disaster type in Custer County is Fire, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Snowstorm (2), Coastal Storm (1).
How does Custer County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Colorado average?
FEMA lists 13 declaration records for Custer County. That is 27% above the Colorado county mean of 10.2. Its count is also 37% 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 Custer County received?
Custer County has received 3 major disaster declarations, representing 23% of all 13 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Custer County filed?
Custer County has 1 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $769 in payments, with an average of $769 per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Custer County?
No. In Custer County, Landslide has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $1.9M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Custer County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Custer County was 2002, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1999 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Custer County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Custer County, Colorado has an overall risk score of 3.9 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $4.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Custer County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Custer County as of the latest release is Landslide (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Relatively Low) and Lightning (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts landslide here at roughly once every 4 years. These scores are based on FEMA's analysis of historical event frequency, 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 Custer County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Colorado profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events