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Indiana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index

Grant County, IN

20 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.

20
FEMA declarations
13
Major disasters
69
NRI risk · Relatively Low
Severe Storm
Top hazard

The verdict

Two federal records point in the busier direction for Grant County. Its 20 FEMA declarations are 17% above the Indiana county mean and exceed the count for 46% 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
20
FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
135
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 18053 · Grant County 20 declarations · rank 1587/3,266

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

  • DECL-HEAVY 20
  • MAJOR-MID 65%
  • RANK-LOWER #1,587
  • PHOTO-FINISH Monona
  • NRI-LOW 69
  • ACT-HIGH High
  • TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
  • VS-ST-ABOVE +17%

Nearest declaration peer: Monona, IA (0 declaration gap)

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

Grant County in the declaration-count neighbourhood

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

declarations

What this shows Grant County carries 20 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1587 of 3,266 counties in this registry.

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

How Grant County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally

Grant County vs. all counties in this dataset

FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Grant County

20 46th percentile higher than 46% 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

Grant County's FEMA Risk Index score

0/100100/100Indiana avg46/10069.4/100
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Indiana county average

Which hazard drives modeled loss here?

FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Grant County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $12.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Tornado 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 Grant County's hazard record show?

Reading the federal records together

The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 135 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 $12.6K 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. Grant County's 20 federal records stand 17% above the Indiana county mean of 17.1. 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, 69.4/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $23.1M in annualized losses), and a Relatively High social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively High community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Tornado carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 3 years here, based on 21 historical events on record.

65 /100

Historical Activity Index

High historical activity

Grant County, IN · 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
14/30

20 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)

County Disaster Density High
15/25

20 declarations (1.2x state county average of 17)

Major Disaster Share High
16/25

13 of 20 declarations are major disasters (65%)

Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20

8 different disaster types declared in Grant County

FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Grant County

Grant County NRI risk profile 8-axis FEMA National Risk Index radar showing per-hazard scores for Earthquake 25, Flood 48, Hurricane 8, Tornado 48, Wildfire 8, Drought 25, Heat Wave 25, Winter Storm 48. The simple mean of these eight displayed scores is 29 of 100. Earthquake Flood Hurricane Tornado Wildfire Drought Heat Wave Winter Storm 29 8-hazard mean
Grant County NRI risk profile FIPS 18053 · displayed-hazard mean 29/100
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

20

Above median

Major Disaster share

65%

Major-heavy

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 Grant 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
Tornado Relatively Moderate roughly once every 3 years
Hail Relatively Moderate an average of 4.5 times per year
Earthquake Relatively Low roughly once every 642 years
Heat Wave Relatively Low 5.3 modeled event-days per year
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate roughly once every 2 years
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate an average of 9.7 times per year
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate an average of 5.2 times per year
Drought Relatively Low 1.7 modeled event-days per year
Cold Wave Relatively Low an average of 3.8 times per year
Lightning Relatively Low an average of 44 times per year
Ice Storm Relatively Low roughly once every 1 years
Landslide Very Low roughly once every 13 years
Hurricane Very Low roughly once every 87 years
Wildfire Very Low roughly once every 84,065 years

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

Disaster Types

Severe Storm 8
Snowstorm 4
Biological 2
Tornado 2
Winter Storm 1
Hurricane 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
Flood 1

What Severe Storm declarations mean here

Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Grant County's record, 40% 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 - 13 65.0%

of all 20 declarations

Emergency - 7 35.0%

of all 20 declarations

FEMA Declarations Timeline

Year Declarations
2026 1
2023 1
2020 2
2008 1
2007 1
2005 2
2004 1
2003 2
2002 1
2001 1
1999 1
1992 1
1991 2
1977 1
1974 1
Show 1 earlier declaration years
1965 1

Disaster Declarations

How the 20 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.

Download these 20 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.

DR# Title Type Incident Date
3641 SEVERE WINTER STORM EM Winter Storm 2026-01-24
4704 SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES DR Severe Storm 2023-04-15
4515 COVID-19 PANDEMIC DR Biological 2020-04-03
3456 COVID-19 EM Biological 2020-03-13
1766 SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES DR Severe Storm 2008-06-08
3274 SNOW EM Snowstorm 2007-03-12
3238 HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION EM Hurricane 2005-09-10
1573 SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2005-01-21
1520 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2004-06-03
1487 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2003-09-05
1476 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2003-07-11
1433 SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES DR Severe Storm 2002-09-25
3162 SNOW EM Snowstorm 2001-01-24
3135 IN-WINTER STORM 12/23/98 EM Snowstorm 1999-01-15
962 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING DR Severe Storm 1992-09-18
899 SEVERE ICE STORM DR Severe Ice Storm 1991-03-29
891 SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING DR Flood 1991-01-05
3028 SNOWSTORMS EM Snowstorm 1977-02-02
423 TORNADOES DR Tornado 1974-04-04
189 TORNADOES & SEVERE STORMS DR Tornado 1965-04-14

Storm Events in Indiana

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

Storm Type Events Fatalities Injuries Property Damage
Thunderstorm Wind 4,886 16 73 $57.6M
Hail 1,643 0 0 $1.7M
Winter Weather 1,166 32 80 $2.5M
Flood 850 13 3 $16.0M
Flash Flood 648 14 5 $97.9M

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

NFIP Flood Insurance Claims

Total Claims

135

Total Paid

$1.7M

Avg Per Claim

$12.6K

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

FEMA National Risk Index

Overall Risk

Relatively Low

Score: 69.4/100

Expected Annual Loss

Relatively Low

$23.1M/year

Social Vulnerability

Relatively High

Community Resilience

Relatively High

Hazard Risk Breakdown

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

Tornado exposure is the most spatially concentrated in the model: total destruction along a narrow corridor with intact property either side. County-level averages therefore understate severity badly for anyone actually in the path, and overstate it for everyone else.

For Grant County the two measures on this page point the same way: Tornado 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

Grant County's closest FEMA peer: Harmon County, OK

Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Grant 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 Grant County - capture-dated entries only.

Compare beyond this state

Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume

Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Grant 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

Grant County's NFIP claims file (135 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 Grant County?
The most common disaster type in Grant County is Severe Storm, with 8 declarations. Other disaster types include Snowstorm (4), Biological (2), Tornado (2).
How does Grant County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Indiana average?
FEMA lists 20 declaration records for Grant County. That is 17% above the Indiana county mean of 17.1. Its count is also 3% 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 Grant County received?
Grant County has received 13 major disaster declarations, representing 65% of all 20 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Grant County filed?
Grant County has 135 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $1.7M in payments, with an average of $12.6K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Grant County?
No. In Grant County, Tornado has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $12.3M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Grant County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Grant County was 1991, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Grant County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Grant County, Indiana has an overall risk score of 69.4 out of 100 (Relatively Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively High and community resilience is Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $23.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Grant County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Grant County as of the latest release is Tornado (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively Moderate) and Earthquake (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts tornado here at roughly once every 3 years, drawn from 21 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 Grant County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Indiana profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events