FEMA Records
8
Low volume
Illinois · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Fayette County, IL
8 FEMA disaster declarations (2002-2022), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Tornado.
- 8
- FEMA declarations
- 5
- Major disasters
- 49
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Tornado
- Top hazard
The verdict
Start with the local benchmark for Fayette County: 8 FEMA declaration records are 38% below the Illinois county mean, even though the count is higher than 6% of counties in the national registry. On FEMA's distinct National Risk Index model, which combines expected loss with vulnerability and resilience, the county ranks safer than 49%.
- Safer than 49%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 8
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 3
- 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 17051 · Fayette County 8 declarations · rank 3027/3,266
DECL-LIGHT · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-MODERATE · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-LIGHT 8
- MAJOR-MID 63%
- RANK-LOWER #3,027
- PHOTO-FINISH Marion
- NRI-LOW 49
- ACT-MODERATE Moderate
- TYPE-LEAD Tornado
- VS-ST-BELOW -38%
Nearest declaration peer: Marion, IL (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Illinois state profile
Fayette County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Fayette County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Fayette · this county 8
Fayette · this county
8 declarations
- Kane · near 8
Kane · near
8 declarations
- Marion · near 8
Marion · near
8 declarations
- Mesa · near 8
Mesa · near
8 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Fayette County carries 8 FEMA declaration records, ranked 3027 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Fayette County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Fayette County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Fayette County
8 6th percentile higher than 6% 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
Fayette County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Fayette County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $6.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Earthquake carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low). 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 Fayette County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 48.8/100 for this county (Relatively Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Relatively Low (roughly $15.1M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively Moderate) and community resilience (Very High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Earthquake, only reaches Relatively Low on FEMA's scale, none of the 18 modeled hazards stand out here. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 181 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 3 claims and $4.3K 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 Illinois county averages 12.9 federal declaration records, while Fayette County has 8. The gap is 38% 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.
43 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Fayette County, IL · 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) Low
6/30
8 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.4x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
8/25
8 declarations (0.6x state county average of 13)
Major Disaster Share High
16/25
5 of 8 declarations are major disasters (63%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Fayette County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Fayette 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
63%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
49
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Fayette 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 181 years |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 1.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 9.9 modeled event-days per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 1.8 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5.1 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 3.6 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 39 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 49 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 7.8 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 15,632 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Tornado 3
Biological 2
Snowstorm 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
Hurricane 1
What Tornado declarations mean here
Tornado is the most frequent declaration type on Fayette County's record, 38% of its declarations, which is unusual: most counties file tornado damage under the broader Severe Storm category, so a tornado-led record generally means one or more damage paths severe enough to be named in their own right. Tornado damage is the most spatially concentrated of any hazard class here - total destruction along a narrow corridor with undamaged property either side, so county-level totals understate how severe the local impact was for the households actually in the path.
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 - 5 62.5%
of all 8 declarations
Emergency - 3 37.5%
of all 8 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 8 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 8 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3577 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | EM | Tornado | 2021-12-13 |
| 4489 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-26 |
| 3435 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4157 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 2013-11-26 |
| 1960 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2011-03-17 |
| 1681 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2007-02-09 |
| 3230 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-07 |
| 1416 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 2002-05-21 |
Storm Events in Illinois
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Fayette County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 7,218 | 9 | 67 | $46.0M |
| Hail | 3,195 | 0 | 0 | $27.1M |
| Winter Weather | 1,363 | 14 | 49 | $1.8M |
| Flood | 1,221 | 14 | 11 | $84.3M |
| Flash Flood | 1,133 | 11 | 3 | $1.1B |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
3
Total Paid
$4.3K
Avg Per Claim
$1.4K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 48.8/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$15.1M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Earthquake Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Wildfire 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: Earthquake
Earthquake is the model's clearest example of a hazard with no season and no warning. Its expected loss is driven less by how often shaking occurs than by how much of the building stock predates modern seismic codes, so exposure can be high in places where nothing has happened for a long time.
Worth noting for Fayette County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Earthquake carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Low), while the county's declaration history is led by Tornado. 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
Fayette County's closest FEMA peer: Wichita County, KS
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Fayette County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Fayette County shows 8 FEMA declarations, led by Tornado.
Similar Major-disaster share
Fayette County: 5 of 8 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Fayette County: NRI composite 48.8 (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 Fayette County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Fayette 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: 48.8 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 8. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
FEMA's National Risk Index flags Earthquake as the top modeled exposure here (Relatively Low); the guide explains how that model differs from declaration counts.
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 Fayette County?
The most common disaster type in Fayette County is Tornado, with 3 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Snowstorm (1), Severe Ice Storm (1).
How does Fayette County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Illinois average?
The typical Illinois county has 12.9 FEMA declaration records; Fayette County has 8, or 38% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 61% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Fayette County received?
Fayette County has received 5 major disaster declarations, representing 63% of all 8 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Fayette County filed?
Fayette County has 3 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $4.3K in payments, with an average of $1.4K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Fayette County?
No. In Fayette County, Earthquake has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $6.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Fayette County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Fayette County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 2002 to 2022.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Fayette County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Fayette County, Illinois has an overall risk score of 48.8 out of 100 (Relatively Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Moderate and community resilience is Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $15.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Fayette County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Fayette County as of the latest release is Earthquake (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Moderate) and Landslide (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts earthquake here at roughly once every 181 years. 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 Fayette County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Illinois profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events