FEMA Records
20
Above median
Oregon · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Deschutes County, OR
20 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 20
- FEMA declarations
- 6
- Major disasters
- 85
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Deschutes County. Its 20 FEMA declarations are 20% above the Oregon county mean and exceed the count for 46% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 15%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 15%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 20
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 21
- 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 41017 · Deschutes County 20 declarations · rank 1673/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 20
- MAJOR-LIGHT 30%
- RANK-LOWER #1,673
- PHOTO-FINISH Monona
- NRI-MID 85
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-ABOVE +20%
Nearest declaration peer: Monona, IA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Oregon state profile
Deschutes County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Deschutes County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Cleveland · near 20
Cleveland · near
20 declarations
- Deschutes · this county 20
Deschutes · this county
20 declarations
- Monona · near 20
Monona · near
20 declarations
- Tallapoosa · near 20
Tallapoosa · near
20 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Deschutes County carries 20 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1673 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Deschutes County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Deschutes County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Deschutes County
20 46th percentile higher than 46% 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
Deschutes County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Deschutes County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $41.8M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Wildfire 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 Deschutes 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 84.9/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $66.1M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very Low and community resilience Relatively High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Wildfire stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 289 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 21 claims and $186.2K 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. Deschutes County's 20 federal records stand 20% above the Oregon county mean of 16.6. 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.
52 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Deschutes County, OR · 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
14/30
20 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
15/25
20 declarations (1.2x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
8/25
6 of 20 declarations are major disasters (30%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Deschutes County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Deschutes 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
30%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
85
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Deschutes 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively High | roughly once every 289 years |
| Volcanic Activity | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 667 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Avalanche | Relatively High | roughly once every 5 years |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 14 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 20 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 222 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 7 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 57 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 2.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | roughly once every 17 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 69 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 20 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 12
Biological 2
Severe Storm 2
Flood 2
Coastal Storm 1
Drought 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Deschutes County's record, 60% 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 - 11 55.0%
of all 20 declarations
Major Disaster - 6 30.0%
of all 20 declarations
Emergency - 3 15.0%
of all 20 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 2 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 20 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 20 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5647 | AKAWA BUTTE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2026-07-23 |
| 5610 | FLAT FIRE | FM | Fire | 2025-08-23 |
| 5527 | MILE MARKER 132 FIRE | FM | Fire | 2024-08-02 |
| 5500 | DARLENE 3 FIRE | FM | Fire | 2024-06-25 |
| 5394 | 0419 FIRE | FM | Fire | 2021-06-30 |
| 4562 | WILDFIRES AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Fire | 2020-09-15 |
| 4499 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-28 |
| 3429 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 5196 | MILLI 0843 CS FIRE | FM | Fire | 2017-08-17 |
| 4328 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2017-08-08 |
| 5056 | TWO BULLS FIRE | FM | Fire | 2014-06-08 |
| 2727 | GW FIRE | FM | Fire | 2007-09-03 |
| 2659 | BLACK CRATER FIRE | FM | Fire | 2006-07-27 |
| 3228 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-07 |
| 1510 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-02-19 |
| 2493 | OR-BOOTH FIRE-8-19-2003 | FM | Fire | 2003-08-20 |
| 2455 | OR - CACHE MOUNTAIN FIRE - 07/28/02 | FM | Fire | 2002-07-29 |
| 1099 | HIGH WINDS, SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1996-02-09 |
| 3039 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-04-29 |
| 184 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1964-12-24 |
Storm Events in Oregon
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Deschutes County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 859 | 13 | 10 | $3.2B |
| Heavy Snow | 654 | 2 | 0 | $139.2M |
| Frost/Freeze | 391 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Wildfire | 311 | 15 | 38 | $15.1M |
| Flood | 244 | 3 | 1 | $68.4M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
21
Total Paid
$186.2K
Avg Per Claim
$8.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 84.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$66.1M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively High
Volcanic Activity Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Avalanche Relatively High
Lightning Relatively High
Winter Weather Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Low
Landslide Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Drought Very Low
Tornado 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: Wildfire
Wildfire risk in the model reflects fuel, terrain, weather and how much development sits in the wildland-urban interface. It is one of the few hazards where the exposure is materially changed by land management and building choices, not only by where the county happens to be.
For Deschutes County the two measures on this page point the same way: Wildfire is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively High), and Fire declarations also lead its federal record. Where the model and the declaration history agree, the reading is comparatively straightforward, the hazard is both expected and repeatedly realised.
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
Deschutes County's closest FEMA peer: Greenwood County, SC
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Deschutes County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Deschutes County shows 20 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Deschutes County: 6 of 20 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Deschutes County: NRI composite 84.9 (Relatively Moderate).
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 Deschutes County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Deschutes 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: 84.9 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 20. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 20 FEMA declarations, Deschutes 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 Deschutes County?
The most common disaster type in Deschutes County is Fire, with 12 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Severe Storm (2), Flood (2).
How does Deschutes County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Oregon average?
FEMA lists 20 declaration records for Deschutes County. That is 20% above the Oregon county mean of 16.6. Its count is also 3% 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 Deschutes County received?
Deschutes County has received 6 major disaster declarations, representing 30% of all 20 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Deschutes County filed?
Deschutes County has 21 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $186.2K in payments, with an average of $8.9K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Deschutes County?
No. In Deschutes County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $41.8M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Deschutes County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Deschutes County was 2020, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Deschutes County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Deschutes County, Oregon has an overall risk score of 84.9 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $66.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Deschutes County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Deschutes County is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Volcanic Activity (Relatively Moderate) and Riverine Flooding (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 289 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 Deschutes County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Oregon profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events