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Nebraska · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index

Gage County, NE

23 FEMA disaster declarations (1967-2022), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.

23
FEMA declarations
21
Major disasters
41
NRI risk · Very Low
Severe Storm
Top hazard

The verdict

Two federal records point in the busier direction for Gage County. Its 23 FEMA declarations are 37% above the Nebraska county mean and exceed the count for 62% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 41%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.

Safer than 41%
of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
Very Low
FEMA National Risk Index rating
23
FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
184
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.

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FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk

County FIPS 31067 · Gage County 23 declarations · rank 1210/3,266

DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE

  • DECL-HEAVY 23
  • MAJOR-HEAVY 91%
  • RANK-LOWER #1,210
  • PHOTO-FINISH Roanoke
  • NRI-LOW Very Low
  • ACT-HIGH High
  • TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
  • VS-ST-ABOVE +37%

Nearest declaration peer: Roanoke, VA (0 declaration gap)

FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Nebraska state profile

Gage County in the declaration-count neighbourhood

FEMA declaration records among Gage County and nearest peers by total count

declarations

What this shows Gage County carries 23 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1210 of 3,266 counties in this registry.

Source FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 As of 2026-08-25

How Gage County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally

Gage County vs. all counties in this dataset

FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Gage County

23 Top 38% higher than 62% of 3,266 counties

This county 0 90 all U.S. counties FEMA tracks, bucketed by value

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

Gage County's FEMA Risk Index score

0/100100/100Nebraska avg26/10040.6/100
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Nebraska county average

Which hazard drives modeled loss here?

FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Gage County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $4.5M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), while Hail 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 Gage County's hazard record show?

Reading the federal records together

The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 184 paid claims, totaling $1.7M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $9.5K 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. Gage County's 23 federal records stand 37% above the Nebraska county mean of 16.8. 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

FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 40.6/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Relatively Low (roughly $15.1M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very Low) and community resilience (Relatively High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Hail carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 8 times per year here, based on 303 historical events on record.

72 /100

Historical Activity Index

High historical activity

Gage County, NE · 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) High
17/30

23 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.1x national county average)

County Disaster Density High
17/25

23 declarations (1.4x state county average of 17)

Major Disaster Share Very High
23/25

21 of 23 declarations are major disasters (91%)

Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20

6 different disaster types declared in Gage County

FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Gage County

Gage County NRI risk profile 8-axis FEMA National Risk Index radar showing per-hazard scores for Earthquake 8, Flood 8, Hurricane 0, Tornado 48, Wildfire 25, Drought 25, Heat Wave 25, Winter Storm 48. The simple mean of these eight displayed scores is 23 of 100. Earthquake Flood Hurricane Tornado Wildfire Drought Heat Wave Winter Storm 23 8-hazard mean
Gage County NRI risk profile FIPS 31067 · displayed-hazard mean 23/100
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.

FEMA Records

23

Above median

Major Disaster share

91%

Mostly major

NRI risk score

41

Very Low

Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release

How often does each hazard strike Gage 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
Hail Relatively Moderate an average of 8 times per year
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate an average of 4.6 times per year
Wildfire Relatively Low roughly once every 777 years
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate an average of 1.1 times per year
Tornado Relatively Moderate roughly once every 1 years
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate an average of 12 times per year
Lightning Relatively Moderate an average of 47 times per year
Drought Relatively Low 15 modeled event-days per year
Heat Wave Relatively Low 8 modeled event-days per year
Landslide Very Low roughly once every 8 years
Riverine Flooding Very Low an average of 1.1 times per year
Earthquake Very Low roughly once every 1,789 years
Cold Wave Very Low an average of 3.3 times per year

Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release

Disaster Types

Severe Storm 12
Flood 5
Biological 2
Severe Ice Storm 2
Hurricane 1
Tornado 1

What Severe Storm declarations mean here

Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Gage County's record, 52% of its declarations. In FEMA's vocabulary this covers convective weather: thunderstorm straight-line winds, large hail, and the multi-day outbreaks that often carry embedded tornadoes. Activity is heaviest in spring and summer, though the season varies by region.

These events behave differently from a hurricane on paper. Damage tends to be distributed along a storm track rather than concentrated on a coastline, and a declaration typically follows an outbreak that crossed several counties over a few days, not a single point of impact. Because the qualifying threshold is the cost of uninsured public and individual losses rather than storm intensity, two similar storms can produce a declaration in one year and none in another.

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 - 21 91.3%

of all 23 declarations

Emergency - 2 8.7%

of all 23 declarations

FEMA Declarations Timeline

Year Declarations
2022 1
2020 2
2019 1
2017 1
2015 1
2010 3
2008 3
2007 1
2005 1
2004 1
2001 1
1996 1
1993 1
1990 1
1984 1
Show 3 earlier declaration years
1976 1
1974 1
1967 1

Disaster Declarations

How the 23 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.

Download these 23 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.

DR# Title Type Incident Date
4641 SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES DR Severe Storm 2022-02-23
4521 COVID-19 PANDEMIC DR Biological 2020-04-04
3483 COVID-19 EM Biological 2020-03-13
4420 SEVERE WINTER STORM, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING DR Flood 2019-03-21
4325 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS DR Severe Storm 2017-08-01
4225 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2015-06-25
1902 SEVERE STORMS, ICE JAMS, AND FLOODING DR Flood 2010-04-21
1878 SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND SNOWSTORM DR Severe Storm 2010-02-25
1864 SEVERE WINTER STORM DR Severe Storm 2009-12-16
1770 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2008-06-20
1765 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2008-05-30
1739 SEVERE WINTER STORM DR Severe Ice Storm 2008-01-11
1706 SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES DR Severe Storm 2007-06-06
3245 HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUEES EM Hurricane 2005-09-13
1517 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2004-05-25
1373 SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING AND TORNADOES DR Severe Storm 2001-05-16
1123 SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES DR Severe Storm 1996-06-25
998 SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING DR Flood 1993-07-19
873 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING DR Severe Storm 1990-07-04
716 TORNADOES & FLOODING DR Tornado 1984-07-03
Show 3 earlier declaration records
DR# Title Type Incident Date
500 ICE STORMS & HIGH WINDS DR Severe Ice Storm 1976-04-08
406 SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING DR Flood 1973-10-20
228 SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING DR Flood 1967-07-18

Storm Events in Nebraska

Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Gage County.

Storm Type Events Fatalities Injuries Property Damage
Hail 6,079 0 2 $237.7M
Thunderstorm Wind 4,757 3 19 $228.1M
Drought 1,658 0 0 $0
High Wind 1,647 1 1 $22.1M
Winter Storm 1,155 0 2 $335.0K

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025

NFIP Flood Insurance Claims

Total Claims

184

Total Paid

$1.7M

Avg Per Claim

$9.5K

Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data

FEMA National Risk Index

Overall Risk

Very Low

Score: 40.6/100

Expected Annual Loss

Relatively Low

$15.1M/year

Social Vulnerability

Very Low

Community Resilience

Relatively High

Hazard Risk Breakdown

Hail Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Hurricane 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: Hail

Hail is among the most expensive hazards in the model relative to how little it threatens life. It concentrates on roofs, vehicles and crops, and a single severe storm can generate an insurance loss across a metropolitan area without a single injury.

For Gage County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hail is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Moderate), and Severe Storm 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

Gage County's closest FEMA peer: Cowlitz County, WA

Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Gage County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.

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 Gage County - capture-dated entries only.

Compare beyond this state

Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume

Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Gage 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.

Further reading for this county

Understanding disaster data

Gage County's NFIP claims file (184 claims) and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records - this guide separates them from modeled NRI risk.

More PlainHazard guides

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most common disaster type in Gage County?
The most common disaster type in Gage County is Severe Storm, with 12 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (5), Biological (2), Severe Ice Storm (2).
How does Gage County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Nebraska average?
FEMA lists 23 declaration records for Gage County. That is 37% above the Nebraska county mean of 16.8. Its count is also 11% above 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 Gage County received?
Gage County has received 21 major disaster declarations, representing 91% of all 23 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Gage County filed?
Gage County has 184 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $1.7M in payments, with an average of $9.5K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Gage County?
No. In Gage County, Hail has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $4.5M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Gage County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Gage County was 2008, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1967 to 2022.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Gage County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Gage County, Nebraska has an overall risk score of 40.6 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very Low and community resilience is Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $15.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Gage County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Gage County as of the latest release is Hail (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Strong Wind (Relatively Moderate) and Wildfire (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hail here at an average of 8 times per year, drawn from 303 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 Gage County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Nebraska profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events