FEMA Records
18
Below median
Kentucky · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Grant County, KY
18 FEMA disaster declarations (1996-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 18
- FEMA declarations
- 12
- Major disasters
- 16
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Grant County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 18 declarations, more than 37% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 36% below the Kentucky county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 16%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 16%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 18
- 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 21081 · Grant County 18 declarations · rank 2023/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 18
- MAJOR-MID 67%
- RANK-LOWER #2,023
- PHOTO-FINISH Monroe
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -36%
Nearest declaration peer: Monroe, TN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Kentucky state profile
Grant County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Grant County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Brooke · near 18
Brooke · near
18 declarations
- Grant · this county 18
Grant · this county
18 declarations
- Mecklenburg · near 18
Mecklenburg · near
18 declarations
- Monroe · near 18
Monroe · near
18 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Grant County carries 18 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2023 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Grant County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Grant County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Grant County
18 37th percentile higher than 37% 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
Grant County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Grant County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $2.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Tornado 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 Grant County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 16.3/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $6.9M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Relatively Low social-vulnerability score and Relatively Low community-resilience score. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Tornado, 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 6 years here, based on 8 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 $4.5K 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 Kentucky county averages 28.1 federal declaration records, while Grant County has 18. The gap is 36% 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.
56 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Grant County, KY · 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
13/30
18 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
8/25
18 declarations (0.6x state county average of 28)
Major Disaster Share High
17/25
12 of 18 declarations are major disasters (67%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Grant County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Grant 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
67%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
16
Very 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 Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 51 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5.1 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 6.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 582 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 1.7 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 11 times per year |
| Drought | Very Low | 2.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | an average of 1.3 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 3.4 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 120 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 37,801 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
Biological 2
Flood 2
Severe Ice Storm 2
Snowstorm 2
Winter Storm 1
Hurricane 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Grant County's record, 44% 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 - 12 66.7%
of all 18 declarations
Emergency - 6 33.3%
of all 18 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2025 | 2 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 18 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 18 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3633 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 3626 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | EM | Severe Storm | 2025-04-03 |
| 3624 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, AND LANDSLIDES | EM | Severe Storm | 2025-02-16 |
| 4702 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-04-10 |
| 4497 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-28 |
| 3469 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4428 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2019-04-17 |
| 4361 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2018-04-26 |
| 4218 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, SNOWSTORM, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2015-05-12 |
| 4057 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2012-03-06 |
| 1976 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-05-04 |
| 1818 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2009-02-05 |
| 3302 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2009-01-28 |
| 3231 | HURRICANE KATRINA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1578 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND RECORD SNOW | DR | Snowstorm | 2005-02-08 |
| 1454 | SEVERE WINTER ICE AND SNOW STORMS, HEAVY RAIN, FLOODING, TORNADOES, AND MUD AND | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-03-14 |
| 1163 | SEVERE STORM, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-03-04 |
| 1089 | BLIZZARD OF 96 | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-13 |
Storm Events in Kentucky
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Grant County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 6,702 | 9 | 56 | $55.2M |
| Flash Flood | 1,757 | 65 | 16 | $42.6M |
| Flood | 1,646 | 31 | 6 | $37.1M |
| Hail | 1,534 | 1 | 0 | $4.7M |
| Winter Weather | 1,079 | 14 | 54 | $655.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
2
Total Paid
$4.5K
Avg Per Claim
$2.3K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 16.3/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$6.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Tornado Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Landslide Very Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Drought Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Hail 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 Low), 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: Macomb County, MI
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Grant County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Grant County shows 18 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Grant County: 12 of 18 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Grant County: NRI composite 16.3 (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 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.
Similar NRI composite
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA NRI score. This county: 16.3 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 18. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 18 FEMA declarations, Grant 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 Grant County?
The most common disaster type in Grant County is Severe Storm, with 8 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Flood (2), Severe Ice Storm (2).
How does Grant County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Kentucky average?
The typical Kentucky county has 28.1 FEMA declaration records; Grant County has 18, or 36% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 13% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Grant County received?
Grant County has received 12 major disaster declarations, representing 67% of all 18 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Grant County filed?
Grant County has 2 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $4.5K in payments, with an average of $2.3K 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 Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $2.3M. 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 2005, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1996 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Grant County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Grant County, Kentucky has an overall risk score of 16.3 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $6.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Grant County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Grant County is Tornado (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Lightning (Relatively Moderate) and Strong Wind (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts tornado here at roughly once every 6 years, drawn from 8 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 Grant County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Kentucky profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events