FEMA Records
8
Low volume
Montana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Daniels County, MT
8 FEMA disaster declarations (1986-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 8
- FEMA declarations
- 6
- Major disasters
- 2
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Start with the local benchmark for Daniels County: 8 FEMA declaration records are 27% below the Montana county mean, even though the count is higher than 6% 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 2%.
- Safer than 2%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 8
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 4
- flood declarations, the most common hazard here
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 30019 · Daniels County 8 declarations · rank 3048/3,266
DECL-LIGHT · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-MODERATE · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-LIGHT 8
- MAJOR-MID 75%
- RANK-LOWER #3,048
- PHOTO-FINISH Marion
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-MODERATE Moderate
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -27%
Nearest declaration peer: Marion, IL (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Montana state profile
Daniels County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Daniels County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Daniels · this county 8
Daniels · this county
8 declarations
- Kane · near 8
Kane · near
8 declarations
- Marion · near 8
Marion · near
8 declarations
- Mesa · near 8
Mesa · near
8 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Daniels County carries 8 FEMA declaration records, ranked 3048 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Daniels County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Daniels County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Daniels County
8 6th percentile higher than 6% 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
Daniels County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Daniels 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 1.8/100 (rated Very Low). Projected losses are minimal, Expected Annual Loss reads Very Low (roughly $2.5M in annualized losses), and the county's exposure is shaped by a Very Low social-vulnerability profile and Very Low community resilience. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Cold Wave, 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 an average of 21 times per year here, based on 400 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
No paid-claim row for this county appears in the NFIP county table used by PlainHazard. That absence is not evidence that flooding never occurred: the register observes claims under federal flood-insurance policies, not uninsured losses, emergency reports, or every flood outside the program. The FEMA declaration history below is therefore the available federal-action record on this page.
Start with the state benchmark: a Montana county averages 11.0 federal declaration records, while Daniels County has 8. 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.
44 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Daniels County, MT · 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
6/30
8 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.4x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
9/25
8 declarations (0.7x state county average of 11)
Major Disaster Share Very High
19/25
6 of 8 declarations are major disasters (75%)
Hazard Diversity High
10/20
4 different disaster types declared in Daniels County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Daniels 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
75%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
2
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Daniels 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 Low | an average of 21 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 930 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 18 times per year |
| Drought | Very Low | 32 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 1.3 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 1.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 9 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 6,667 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 26 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 4
Biological 2
Severe Storm 1
Hurricane 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Daniels County's record, 50% 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 - 6 75.0%
of all 8 declarations
Emergency - 2 25.0%
of all 8 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 8 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 8 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4745 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2023-10-11 |
| 4726 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2023-08-12 |
| 4508 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-31 |
| 3476 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4437 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-05-24 |
| 1996 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-06-17 |
| 3253 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 761 | HEAVY RAINS, LANDSLIDES & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-03-15 |
Storm Events in Montana
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Daniels County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 3,735 | 1 | 2 | $5.3M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 2,396 | 5 | 24 | $15.1M |
| Hail | 2,015 | 0 | 0 | $4.1M |
| Winter Storm | 1,502 | 13 | 18 | $11.2M |
| Heavy Snow | 796 | 5 | 3 | $143.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 1.8/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$2.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Drought Very Low
Hail Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Lightning 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 Daniels County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Low), 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
Daniels County's closest FEMA peer: Kimball County, NE
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Daniels County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Daniels County shows 8 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Daniels County: 6 of 8 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Daniels County: NRI composite 1.8 (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 Daniels County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Daniels 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: 1.8 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 8. 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 Cold Wave as the top modeled exposure here (Relatively Low); 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 Daniels County?
The most common disaster type in Daniels County is Flood, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Severe Storm (1), Hurricane (1).
How does Daniels County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Montana average?
The typical Montana county has 11.0 FEMA declaration records; Daniels County has 8, or 27% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 61% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Daniels County received?
Daniels County has received 6 major disaster declarations, representing 75% of all 8 disaster declarations.
What was the worst year for disasters in Daniels County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Daniels County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1986 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Daniels County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Daniels County, Montana has an overall risk score of 1.8 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very Low and community resilience is Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $2.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Daniels County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Daniels County is Cold Wave (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Very Low) and Winter Weather (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 21 times per year, drawn from 400 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.
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 Daniels County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Montana profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events