FEMA Records
21
Above median
California · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Del Norte County, CA
21 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively High. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 21
- FEMA declarations
- 18
- Major disasters
- 94
- NRI risk · Relatively High
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Del Norte County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 21 declarations, more than 52% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 26% below the California county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 6%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 6%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively High
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 21
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 37
- 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 06015 · Del Norte County 21 declarations · rank 1466/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-HIGH · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 21
- MAJOR-HEAVY 86%
- RANK-LOWER #1,466
- PHOTO-FINISH Montgomery
- NRI-HIGH 94
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -26%
Nearest declaration peer: Montgomery, IN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · California state profile
Del Norte County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Del Norte County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Atascosa · near 21
Atascosa · near
21 declarations
- Del Norte · this county 21
Del Norte · this county
21 declarations
- Mason · near 21
Mason · near
21 declarations
- Montgomery · near 21
Montgomery · near
21 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Del Norte County carries 21 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1466 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Del Norte County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Del Norte County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Del Norte County
21 Top 48% higher than 52% 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
Del Norte County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Del Norte County is led by Tsunami (about $114.2M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Landslide 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 Del Norte 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 94.4/100 (Relatively High). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $142.4M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Moderate and community resilience Relatively Low, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Landslide stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 2.2 times per year here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 37 claims and $454.6K 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 California county averages 28.5 federal declaration records, while Del Norte County has 21. The gap is 26% 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.
65 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Del Norte County, CA · 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) High
15/30
21 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
9/25
21 declarations (0.7x state county average of 29)
Major Disaster Share Very High
21/25
18 of 21 declarations are major disasters (86%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Del Norte County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Del Norte 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
86%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
94
Relatively High
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Del Norte 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 High | an average of 2.2 times per year |
| Tsunami | Very High | roughly once every 4 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 49 years |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 672 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Coastal Flooding | Very Low | an average of 3.6 times per year |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 20 modeled event-days per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 2 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 7 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 13 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 19 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 33 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 73 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 8
Severe Storm 6
Biological 2
Fire 1
Tsunami 1
Hurricane 1
Fishing Losses 1
Coastal Storm 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Del Norte 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 - 18 85.7%
of all 21 declarations
Emergency - 3 14.3%
of all 21 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 3 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
| 1983 | 1 | |
Show 3 earlier declaration years
| 1972 | 1 | |
| 1970 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 21 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 21 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4699 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-04-03 |
| 3592 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | EM | Flood | 2023-03-10 |
| 4683 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2023-01-14 |
| 4569 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2020-10-16 |
| 4482 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-22 |
| 3428 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4434 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2019-05-17 |
| 4308 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2017-04-01 |
| 1968 | TSUNAMI WAVES | DR | Tsunami | 2011-04-18 |
| 1628 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, MUDSLIDES, AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-02-03 |
| 3248 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1203 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-02-09 |
| 1155 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, MUD AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-04 |
| 1044 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, MUD FLOWS | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-01-10 |
| 1038 | THE EL NINO (THE SALMON INDUSTRY) | DR | Fishing Losses | 1994-09-13 |
| 979 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, MUD & LAND SLIDES, & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-02-03 |
| 758 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-02-21 |
| 677 | COASTAL STORMS, FLOODS, SLIDES & TORNADOES | DR | Coastal Storm | 1983-02-09 |
| 329 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-04-05 |
| 283 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1970-02-16 |
Show 1 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 183 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1964-12-24 |
Storm Events in California
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Del Norte County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 4,070 | 13 | 27 | $228.2M |
| Flood | 3,132 | 26 | 25 | $985.1M |
| Heavy Snow | 1,814 | 6 | 0 | $1.6M |
| Dense Fog | 1,605 | 52 | 148 | $2.8M |
| Drought | 1,421 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
37
Total Paid
$454.6K
Avg Per Claim
$12.3K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively High
Score: 94.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$142.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Landslide Relatively High
Tsunami Very High
Earthquake Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Coastal Flooding Very Low
Avalanche Very Low
Drought Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Hail Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Cold Wave No Rating
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 Del Norte County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Landslide 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
Del Norte County's closest FEMA peer: McIntosh County, ND
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Del Norte County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Del Norte County shows 21 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Del Norte County: 18 of 21 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Del Norte County: NRI composite 94.4 (Relatively High).
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 Del Norte County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Del Norte 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: 94.4 (Relatively High).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 21. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 21 FEMA declarations, Del Norte 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 Del Norte County?
The most common disaster type in Del Norte County is Flood, with 8 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (6), Biological (2), Fire (1).
How does Del Norte County's FEMA declaration record compare with the California average?
The typical California county has 28.5 FEMA declaration records; Del Norte County has 21, or 26% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 1% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Del Norte County received?
Del Norte County has received 18 major disaster declarations, representing 86% of all 21 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Del Norte County filed?
Del Norte County has 37 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $454.6K in payments, with an average of $12.3K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Del Norte County?
No. In Del Norte County, Landslide has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Tsunami leads Expected Annual Loss at about $114.2M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Del Norte County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Del Norte County was 2023, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Del Norte County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Del Norte County, California has an overall risk score of 94.4 out of 100 (Relatively High). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Moderate; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $142.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Del Norte County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Del Norte County as of the latest release is Landslide (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Tsunami (Very High) and Earthquake (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts landslide here at an average of 2.2 times per year. 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 Del Norte County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · California profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events