FEMA Records
13
Low volume
North Dakota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Golden Valley County, ND
13 FEMA disaster declarations (1978-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 13
- FEMA declarations
- 10
- Major disasters
- 13
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Golden Valley County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 13 declarations, more than 17% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 50% below the North Dakota county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 13%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 13%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 13
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 2
- 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 38033 · Golden Valley County 13 declarations · rank 2656/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 13
- MAJOR-MID 77%
- RANK-LOWER #2,656
- PHOTO-FINISH Clarke
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -50%
Nearest declaration peer: Clarke, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · North Dakota state profile
Golden Valley County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Golden Valley County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Bristol (city) · near 13
Bristol (city) · near
13 declarations
- Clarke · near 13
Clarke · near
13 declarations
- Douglas · near 13
Douglas · near
13 declarations
- Golden Valley · this county 13
Golden Valley · this county
13 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Golden Valley County carries 13 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2656 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Golden Valley County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Golden Valley County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Golden Valley County
13 17th percentile higher than 17% 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
Golden Valley County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Golden Valley County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's National Risk Index places this county in the low end of the national distribution, composite score 13.1/100 (Very Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $4.8M in annualized losses). Two modifiers shape how that exposure becomes real-world harm here: social vulnerability (Relatively Moderate) and community resilience (Relatively Low). Among the 18 modeled hazards, Cold Wave carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 12 times per year here, based on 230 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 2 claims and $0 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 North Dakota county averages 25.9 federal declaration records, while Golden Valley County has 13. The gap is 50% 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.
49 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Golden Valley County, ND · 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
9/30
13 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.6x national county average)
County Disaster Density Low
6/25
13 declarations (0.5x state county average of 26)
Major Disaster Share Very High
19/25
10 of 13 declarations are major disasters (77%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Golden Valley County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Golden Valley 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
77%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
13
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Golden Valley 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 12 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 16 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 2.3 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 640 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 33 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 1 modeled event-day per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 31 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 10,309 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 4
Severe Storm 3
Biological 2
Snowstorm 2
Coastal Storm 1
Tornado 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Golden Valley County's record, 31% 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 - 10 76.9%
of all 13 declarations
Emergency - 3 23.1%
of all 13 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 2 | |
| 1997 | 2 | |
| 1978 | 2 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 13 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 13 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4717 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2023-07-05 |
| 4660 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-07-13 |
| 4509 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-01 |
| 3477 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 1879 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-02-26 |
| 1616 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND RECORD AND/OR NEAR RECORD SNOW | DR | Snowstorm | 2005-11-21 |
| 3247 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-13 |
| 1376 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, & GROUND SATURATION | DR | Flood | 2001-05-28 |
| 1353 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 2000-12-29 |
| 1174 | SEVERE FLOODING,SEVERE WINTER STORMS, SNOWMELT, SPRING RAINS | DR | Flood | 1997-04-07 |
| 1157 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND BLIZZARD CONDITIONS | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-12 |
| 554 | STORMS, ICE JAMS, SNOWMELT & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1978-04-17 |
| 3061 | BLIZZARD & SNOWSTORMS | EM | Snowstorm | 1978-02-16 |
Storm Events in North Dakota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Golden Valley County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 2,705 | 0 | 2 | $116.1M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 2,459 | 2 | 10 | $67.0M |
| High Wind | 1,184 | 1 | 1 | $2.9M |
| Heavy Snow | 925 | 0 | 3 | $650.0K |
| Blizzard | 905 | 2 | 2 | $60.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
2
Total Paid
$0
Avg Per Claim
$0
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 13.1/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$4.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Drought Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Tornado Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding 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: Cold Wave
Cold Wave measures exposure to extreme cold rather than to snow. Its harm is concentrated in health effects, burst infrastructure and energy demand spikes, and it falls hardest where the building stock and the grid were not built with sustained cold in mind.
Worth noting for Golden Valley County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave 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
Golden Valley County's closest FEMA peer: Keya Paha County, NE
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Golden Valley County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Golden Valley County shows 13 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Golden Valley County: 10 of 13 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Golden Valley County: NRI composite 13.1 (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 Golden Valley County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Golden Valley 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: 13.1 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 13. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 13 FEMA declarations, Golden Valley 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 Golden Valley County?
The most common disaster type in Golden Valley County is Flood, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (3), Biological (2), Snowstorm (2).
How does Golden Valley County's FEMA declaration record compare with the North Dakota average?
The typical North Dakota county has 25.9 FEMA declaration records; Golden Valley County has 13, or 50% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 37% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Golden Valley County received?
Golden Valley County has received 10 major disaster declarations, representing 77% of all 13 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Golden Valley County filed?
Golden Valley County has 2 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $0 in payments, with an average of $0 per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Golden Valley County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Golden Valley County was 1978, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1978 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Golden Valley County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Golden Valley County, North Dakota has an overall risk score of 13.1 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Moderate and community resilience is Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $4.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Golden Valley County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Golden Valley County as of the latest release is Cold Wave (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Winter Weather (Relatively Low) and Hail (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 12 times per year, drawn from 230 historical events on record. 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 Golden Valley County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · North Dakota profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events