FEMA Records
18
Below median
Iowa · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Dickinson County, IA
18 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 18
- FEMA declarations
- 15
- Major disasters
- 36
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Dickinson County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 18 declarations, more than 37% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 7% below the Iowa county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 36%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 36%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 18
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 15
- 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 19059 · Dickinson County 18 declarations · rank 2025/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 18
- MAJOR-HEAVY 83%
- RANK-LOWER #2,025
- PHOTO-FINISH Monroe
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -7%
Nearest declaration peer: Monroe, TN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Iowa state profile
Dickinson County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Dickinson County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Brooke · near 18
Brooke · near
18 declarations
- Dickinson · this county 18
Dickinson · this county
18 declarations
- Mecklenburg · near 18
Mecklenburg · near
18 declarations
- Monroe · near 18
Monroe · near
18 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Dickinson County carries 18 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2025 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Dickinson County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Dickinson County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Dickinson County
18 37th percentile higher than 37% 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
Dickinson County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Dickinson County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $8.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Winter Weather carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). 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 Dickinson County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 36.3/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $14.4M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very Low) and community resilience (Very High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Winter Weather carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 19 times per year here, based on 366 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 15 claims and $311.0K 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 Iowa county averages 19.3 federal declaration records, while Dickinson County has 18. The gap is 7% 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.
61 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Dickinson 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
13/30
18 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
18 declarations (0.9x state county average of 19)
Major Disaster Share Very High
21/25
15 of 18 declarations are major disasters (83%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Dickinson County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Dickinson 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
83%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
36
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Dickinson 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 19 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1 time per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 4.8 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,735 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 11 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 2.8 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 11 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 20 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 3.5 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 4.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 39 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,674 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 7
Severe Storm 6
Biological 2
Snowstorm 1
Hurricane 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Dickinson County's record, 39% 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 - 15 83.3%
of all 18 declarations
Emergency - 3 16.7%
of all 18 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 2 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 18 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 18 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4796 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-06-24 |
| 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 |
| 4386 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2018-08-20 |
| 4184 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2014-07-24 |
| 4114 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2013-05-06 |
| 4016 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-08-24 |
| 1930 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-07-29 |
| 1877 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-02-25 |
| 3275 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2007-03-30 |
| 3239 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1230 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1998-07-02 |
| 996 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-09 |
| 928 | ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 1991-12-26 |
| 269 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-08-14 |
| 259 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-04-25 |
| 193 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1965-04-22 |
Storm Events in Iowa
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Dickinson 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
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
15
Total Paid
$311.0K
Avg Per Claim
$20.7K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 36.3/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$14.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Earthquake 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: Winter Weather
Winter Weather in the model means the accumulation of snow and cold that disrupts rather than destroys: road closures, roof loads, burst pipes and lost heating. Its costs land heavily on transport and on households least able to absorb an interruption.
Worth noting for Dickinson County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Winter Weather carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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
Dickinson County's closest FEMA peer: Knox County, NE
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Dickinson County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Dickinson County shows 18 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Dickinson County: 15 of 18 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Dickinson County: NRI composite 36.3 (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 Dickinson County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Dickinson 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: 36.3 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 18. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 18 FEMA declarations, Dickinson 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 Dickinson County?
The most common disaster type in Dickinson County is Flood, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (6), Biological (2), Snowstorm (1).
How does Dickinson County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Iowa average?
The typical Iowa county has 19.3 FEMA declaration records; Dickinson County has 18, or 7% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 13% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Dickinson County received?
Dickinson County has received 15 major disaster declarations, representing 83% of all 18 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Dickinson County filed?
Dickinson County has 15 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $311.0K in payments, with an average of $20.7K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Dickinson County?
No. In Dickinson County, Winter Weather has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $8.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Dickinson County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Dickinson County was 1969, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Dickinson County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Dickinson County, Iowa has an overall risk score of 36.3 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very Low and community resilience is Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $14.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Dickinson County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Dickinson County is Winter Weather (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Ice Storm (Relatively Moderate) and Hail (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts winter weather here at an average of 19 times per year, drawn from 366 historical events on record. The underlying methodology weighs historical event frequency against 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 Dickinson County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Iowa profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events