FEMA Records
15
Below median
Colorado · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Fremont County, CO
15 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 15
- FEMA declarations
- 7
- Major disasters
- 69
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Fremont County. Its 15 FEMA declarations are 47% above the Colorado county mean and exceed the count for 23% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 31%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 31%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 15
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 72
- 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 08043 · Fremont County 15 declarations · rank 2479/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 15
- MAJOR-LIGHT 47%
- RANK-LOWER #2,479
- PHOTO-FINISH Polk
- NRI-LOW 69
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-ABOVE +47%
Nearest declaration peer: Polk, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Colorado state profile
Fremont County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Fremont County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Flathead · near 15
Flathead · near
15 declarations
- Fremont · this county 15
Fremont · this county
15 declarations
- Murray · near 15
Murray · near
15 declarations
- Polk · near 15
Polk · near
15 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Fremont County carries 15 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2479 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Fremont County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Fremont County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Fremont County
15 23rd percentile higher than 23% 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
Fremont County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Fremont County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $16.1M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Lightning 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 Fremont County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 72 paid claims, totaling $343.6K. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $4.8K 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. Fremont County's 15 federal records stand 47% above the Colorado county mean of 10.2. 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 carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 68.6/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $22.4M in annualized losses), and a Relatively High social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively Moderate community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Lightning stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 65 times per year here, based on 132,434 historical events on record.
61 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Fremont County, CO · 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
11/30
15 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
18/25
15 declarations (1.5x state county average of 10)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
12/25
7 of 15 declarations are major disasters (47%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Fremont County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Fremont 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
47%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
69
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Fremont 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 65 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 297 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 12 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.5 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.6 times per year |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 10,000 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,634 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 51 modeled event-days per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 0.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 5
Flood 3
Biological 2
Coastal Storm 1
Snowstorm 1
Severe Storm 1
Drought 1
Tornado 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Fremont County's record, 33% 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 - 7 46.7%
of all 15 declarations
Emergency - 5 33.3%
of all 15 declarations
Fire Management - 3 20.0%
of all 15 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 4 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 2 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 15 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 15 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4498 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-28 |
| 3436 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4229 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2015-07-16 |
| 4145 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2013-09-14 |
| 3365 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | EM | Flood | 2013-09-12 |
| 4133 | ROYAL GORGE FIRE | DR | Fire | 2013-07-26 |
| 5028 | ROYAL GORGE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2013-06-11 |
| 2923 | DUCKETT FIRE | FM | Fire | 2011-06-16 |
| 3224 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-05 |
| 3185 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2003-04-09 |
| 1421 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2002-06-19 |
| 2410 | IRON MOUNTAIN FIRE | FM | Fire | 2002-06-02 |
| 1276 | CO-FLOODING 4/30/99 | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-05-17 |
| 3025 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-01-29 |
| 200 | TORNADOES, SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 1965-06-19 |
Storm Events in Colorado
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Fremont County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 4,913 | 0 | 100 | $2.9B |
| Winter Weather | 2,620 | 3 | 23 | $22.5K |
| High Wind | 1,992 | 5 | 6 | $20.9M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 1,741 | 2 | 11 | $5.4M |
| Winter Storm | 1,497 | 0 | 0 | $848.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
72
Total Paid
$343.6K
Avg Per Claim
$4.8K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 68.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$22.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Lightning Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Volcanic Activity Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Drought Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Avalanche Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Cold Wave 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: Lightning
Lightning is modeled as a high-frequency, low-per-event hazard: strike counts are large, but each strike affects a very small area. Its aggregate cost accumulates through structure fires, electrical and electronic damage, and it is one of the few hazards whose risk is essentially continuous through the season rather than episodic.
Worth noting for Fremont County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Lightning 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
Fremont County's closest FEMA peer: Augusta County, VA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Fremont County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Fremont County: NRI composite 68.6 (Relatively Low).
Similar Major-disaster share
Fremont County: 7 of 15 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Fremont County shows 15 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 Fremont County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Fremont 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: 68.6 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 15. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Fremont County's NFIP claims file (72 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).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Fremont County?
The most common disaster type in Fremont County is Fire, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (3), Biological (2), Coastal Storm (1).
How does Fremont County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Colorado average?
FEMA lists 15 declaration records for Fremont County. That is 47% above the Colorado county mean of 10.2. Its count is also 28% 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 Fremont County received?
Fremont County has received 7 major disaster declarations, representing 47% of all 15 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Fremont County filed?
Fremont County has 72 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $343.6K in payments, with an average of $4.8K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Fremont County?
No. In Fremont County, Lightning has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $16.1M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Fremont County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Fremont County was 2013, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Fremont County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Fremont County, Colorado has an overall risk score of 68.6 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively High; on community resilience, Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $22.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Fremont County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Fremont County as of the latest release is Lightning (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Relatively Moderate) and Landslide (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts lightning here at an average of 65 times per year, drawn from 132,434 historical events on record. 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 Fremont County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Colorado profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events