FEMA Records
16
Below median
Alaska · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Fairbanks North Star Borough, AK
16 FEMA disaster declarations (1989-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 16
- FEMA declarations
- 9
- Major disasters
- 89
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Fairbanks North Star Borough. Its 16 FEMA declarations are 122% above the Alaska county mean and exceed the count for 27% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 11%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 11%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 16
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 244
- 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.
How does Fairbanks North Star Borough compare?
Fairbanks North Star Borough vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
16 27th percentile higher than 27% 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 · 2026-08-03
Fairbanks North Star Borough's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Alaska county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Fairbanks North Star Borough is led by Earthquake (about $55.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very 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 Fairbanks North Star Borough's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 244 paid claims, totaling $2.6M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $10.5K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Fairbanks North Star Borough's 16 federal records stand 122% above the Alaska county mean of 7.2. 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 88.5/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $101.3M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very Low 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 11 times per year here.
Declaration frequency
The FEMA register is busy by both local and national comparisons. It contains 16 entries for Fairbanks North Star Borough, including 9 Major Disaster records, 122% above the Alaska county mean. Across the 36-year span, that works out to 0.4 declarations a year. Fire leads the file with 6 entries. Declaration type records the federal action taken, not every assistance program approved.
69 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Fairbanks North Star Borough, AK · 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
16 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Very High
25/25
16 declarations (2.2x state county average of 7)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
9 of 16 declarations are major disasters (56%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Fairbanks North Star Borough
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Alaska Avg
+122%
State avg: 7.2
vs. National Avg
-23%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.4
Over 36 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Fairbanks North Star Borough
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
56%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
89
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Fairbanks North Star Borough?
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. These modeled frequencies are not forecasts.
| Hazard | NRI Risk Rating | Recurrence |
|---|---|---|
| Landslide | Relatively High | an average of 11 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 93 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 13 years |
| Winter Weather | Very High | an average of 17 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively High | an average of 3.4 times per year |
| Avalanche | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 30 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 39 times per year |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 10,000 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 75 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 657 years |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 1,727 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 58,822 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 6
Severe Storm 4
Biological 2
Earthquake 1
Flood 1
Snowstorm 1
Freezing 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Fairbanks North Star Borough's record, 38% 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).
Major Disaster - 9 56.3%
of all 16 declarations
Fire Management - 6 37.5%
of all 16 declarations
Emergency - 1 6.3%
of all 16 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1989 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 16 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 16 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5597 | NENANA RIDGE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2025-07-06 |
| 5596 | HIMALAYA ROAD FIRE | FM | Fire | 2025-06-23 |
| 5473 | LOST HORSE CREEK FIRE | FM | Fire | 2023-08-03 |
| 4648 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-03-24 |
| 4533 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-09 |
| 3446 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 5282 | SHOVEL CREEK FIRE | FM | Fire | 2019-06-28 |
| 4162 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2014-01-23 |
| 2909 | MOOSE MOUNTAIN FIRE | FM | Fire | 2011-05-22 |
| 1796 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-09-26 |
| 2525 | BOUNDARY FIRE | FM | Fire | 2004-07-01 |
| 1440 | EARTHQUAKE | DR | Earthquake | 2002-11-08 |
| 1423 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2002-06-26 |
| 1316 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND AVALANCHES | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-02-17 |
| 909 | HEAVY SNOW, ICE JAMS & FLOODING | DR | Snowstorm | 1991-05-30 |
| 826 | SEVERE FREEZING | DR | Freezing | 1989-05-10 |
Storm Events in Alaska
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Fairbanks North Star Borough.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 709 | 0 | 1 | $8.4M |
| Blizzard | 524 | 0 | 0 | $60.0K |
| Heavy Snow | 439 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Winter Storm | 385 | 0 | 0 | $200.0K |
| Flood | 182 | 0 | 0 | $81.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
244
Total Paid
$2.6M
Avg Per Claim
$10.5K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 88.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$101.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Landslide Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Very High
Cold Wave Relatively High
Avalanche Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Volcanic Activity Very Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Hail Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Drought 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 Fairbanks North Star Borough: 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 Fire. 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
Fairbanks North Star Borough's closest FEMA peer: Warren County, KY
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Fairbanks North Star Borough. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Fairbanks North Star Borough: NRI composite 88.5 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar Major-disaster share
Fairbanks North Star Borough: 9 of 16 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Fairbanks North Star Borough shows 16 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
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 Fairbanks North Star Borough - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Fairbanks North Star Borough's NFIP claims file (244 claims) and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records - this guide separates them from modeled NRI risk.
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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Fairbanks North Star Borough?
The most common disaster type in Fairbanks North Star Borough is Fire, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (4), Biological (2), Earthquake (1).
How does Fairbanks North Star Borough's FEMA declaration record compare with the Alaska average?
FEMA lists 16 declaration records for Fairbanks North Star Borough. That is 122% above the Alaska county mean of 7.2. Its count is also 23% 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 Fairbanks North Star Borough received?
Fairbanks North Star Borough has received 9 major disaster declarations, representing 56% of all 16 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Fairbanks North Star Borough filed?
Fairbanks North Star Borough has 244 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $2.6M in payments, with an average of $10.5K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Fairbanks North Star Borough?
No. In Fairbanks North Star Borough, Landslide has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Earthquake leads Expected Annual Loss at about $55.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Fairbanks North Star Borough?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Fairbanks North Star Borough was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1989 to 2025.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Fairbanks North Star Borough?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska has an overall risk score of 88.5 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very Low and community resilience is Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $101.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Fairbanks North Star Borough?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Fairbanks North Star Borough as of the latest release is Landslide (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Relatively Moderate) and Earthquake (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts landslide here at an average of 11 times per year. 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.
What this means for Fairbanks North Star Borough
Fairbanks North Star Borough, AK has 16 federal declaration records, 122% more than the Alaska county mean of 7; its history sits in PlainHazard's high activity band.
- Within this above-state-average declaration file, major disaster leads with 9 of 16 records; the category describes past federal action, not the next likely hazard. Alaska overview
- The state benchmark and national rank point the same way: this count tops the Alaska mean and the totals for 27% of 3,266 U.S. counties. Most-disaster rankings
- Use the data guide to separate this mid-volume insurance-claims file from declaration counts and modeled NRI risk. Disaster-data guide
An above-average declaration count records past federal responses; it does not predict the next event. Current warnings come from the National Weather Service and local emergency officials.
PlainHazard derives this profile from FEMA's Disaster Declarations Summaries and National Risk Index data. The declaration comparison covers 3,266 U.S. counties and county equivalents in this database, refreshed as of 2026-08-03. Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
All federal data sources used on this page
- FEMA OpenFEMA, Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 - all federally-declared disasters for this county. fema.gov/openfema/disaster-declarations
- FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) - per-county per-hazard risk ratings and expected annual loss. hazards.fema.gov/nri
- NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database - state-level storm/severe-weather event records, 2015-2025. ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainHazard Editorial
Verify with FEMA → · Verify with FEMA NRI → · Verify with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.