FEMA Records
17
Below median
Iowa · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Davis County, IA
17 FEMA disaster declarations (1969-2022), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 17
- FEMA declarations
- 15
- Major disasters
- 50
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Davis County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 17 declarations, more than 32% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 12% below the Iowa county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 50%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 50%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 17
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 7
- severe storm 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 19051 · Davis County 17 declarations · rank 2129/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 17
- MAJOR-HEAVY 88%
- RANK-LOWER #2,129
- PHOTO-FINISH Curry
- NRI-LOW 50
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -12%
Nearest declaration peer: Curry, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Iowa state profile
Davis County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Davis County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Curry · near 17
Curry · near
17 declarations
- Davis · this county 17
Davis · this county
17 declarations
- Murray · near 17
Murray · near
17 declarations
- Washington · near 17
Washington · near
17 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Davis County carries 17 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2129 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Davis County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Davis County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Davis County
17 32nd percentile higher than 32% 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
Davis County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Davis County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 50.3/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Very Low (roughly $11.2M in annualized losses), and a Very High social-vulnerability profile combined with Very Low community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Drought stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 14 modeled event-days per year here, based on 371 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 Iowa county averages 19.3 federal declaration records, while Davis County has 17. The gap is 12% 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.
58 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Davis County, IA · 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
12/30
17 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
17 declarations (0.9x state county average of 19)
Major Disaster Share Very High
22/25
15 of 17 declarations are major disasters (88%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Davis County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Davis 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
88%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
50
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Davis 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 High | 14 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 7.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 719 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.3 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 45 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 3.7 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 4.6 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 973 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 11 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 120 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 7
Flood 6
Biological 2
Severe Ice Storm 1
Hurricane 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Davis County's record, 41% 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 - 15 88.2%
of all 17 declarations
Emergency - 2 11.8%
of all 17 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 2 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 17 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 17 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4642 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-02-23 |
| 4483 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-23 |
| 3480 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4421 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-03-23 |
| 4234 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-07-31 |
| 4126 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2013-07-02 |
| 4119 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2013-05-31 |
| 1930 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-07-29 |
| 1763 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-05-27 |
| 1737 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2008-01-04 |
| 1727 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-09-14 |
| 3239 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1518 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-05-25 |
| 1230 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1998-07-02 |
| 996 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-09 |
| 386 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-05-23 |
| 269 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-08-14 |
Storm Events in Iowa
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Davis County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,928 | 6 | 227 | $40.5M |
| Hail | 3,736 | 0 | 0 | $4.3M |
| Heavy Rain | 2,394 | 0 | 0 | $292.0K |
| Drought | 1,556 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Winter Storm | 1,543 | 3 | 4 | $2.8M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 50.3/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$11.2M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively High
Landslide Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Hurricane 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 Davis County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively 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
Davis County's closest FEMA peer: Wabasha County, MN
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Davis County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Davis County shows 17 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Davis County: 15 of 17 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Davis County: NRI composite 50.3 (Relatively 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 Davis County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Davis 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: 50.3 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 17. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 17 FEMA declarations, Davis 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 Davis County?
The most common disaster type in Davis County is Severe Storm, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (6), Biological (2), Severe Ice Storm (1).
How does Davis County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Iowa average?
The typical Iowa county has 19.3 FEMA declaration records; Davis County has 17, or 12% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 18% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Davis County received?
Davis County has received 15 major disaster declarations, representing 88% of all 17 disaster declarations.
What was the worst year for disasters in Davis County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Davis County was 2008, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1969 to 2022.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Davis County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Davis County, Iowa has an overall risk score of 50.3 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very High; on community resilience, Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $11.2M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Davis County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Davis County is Drought (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Landslide (Relatively Low) and Heat Wave (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 14 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 371 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 Davis County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Iowa profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events