FEMA Records
13
Low volume
New Mexico · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Grant County, NM
13 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 13
- FEMA declarations
- 7
- Major disasters
- 74
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Grant County. Its 13 FEMA declarations are 4% above the New Mexico county mean and exceed the count for 17% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 26%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 26%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 13
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 9
- 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 35017 · Grant County 13 declarations · rank 2626/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 13
- MAJOR-MID 54%
- RANK-LOWER #2,626
- PHOTO-FINISH Clarke
- NRI-LOW 74
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +4%
Nearest declaration peer: Clarke, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · New Mexico state profile
Grant County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Grant 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
- Grant · this county 13
Grant · this county
13 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Grant County carries 13 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2626 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Grant County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Grant County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Grant 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
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 $14.9M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Wildfire 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?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 74.1/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $20.8M in annualized losses), and a Very High social-vulnerability profile combined with Very Low community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Wildfire carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 168 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 9 claims and $114.1K 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.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Grant County's 13 federal records stand 4% above the New Mexico county mean of 12.5. 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.
48 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Grant County, NM · 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 High
13/25
13 declarations (1.0x state county average of 12)
Major Disaster Share High
13/25
7 of 13 declarations are major disasters (54%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 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
54%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
74
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 168 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 7.4 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 65 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | an average of 2.2 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 1.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 749 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 101 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 186 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 22 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 94 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 5
Fire 4
Biological 2
Severe Storm 1
Hurricane 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Grant County's record, 38% 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 - 7 53.8%
of all 13 declarations
Fire Management - 3 23.1%
of all 13 declarations
Emergency - 3 23.1%
of all 13 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1985 | 1 | |
| 1984 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5588 | TROUT FIRE | FM | Fire | 2025-06-16 |
| 4529 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-05 |
| 3460 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 2978 | WHITEWATER-BALDY FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2012-05-26 |
| 2866 | QUAIL RIDGE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2011-03-08 |
| 1659 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-08-30 |
| 3229 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-07 |
| 3154 | SEVERE FIRE THREATS | EM | Fire | 2000-05-10 |
| 992 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-06-07 |
| 731 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1985-01-18 |
| 692 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1983-10-24 |
| 571 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1979-01-29 |
| 361 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-11-20 |
Storm Events in New Mexico
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Grant County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drought | 3,382 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| High Wind | 2,351 | 0 | 3 | $18.9M |
| Hail | 1,669 | 1 | 24 | $17.2M |
| Heavy Snow | 986 | 6 | 72 | $2.5M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 952 | 1 | 13 | $25.1M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
9
Total Paid
$114.1K
Avg Per Claim
$12.7K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 74.1/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$20.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Avalanche Very Low
Drought Relatively Low
Hail Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Strong Wind 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: Wildfire
Wildfire risk in the model reflects fuel, terrain, weather and how much development sits in the wildland-urban interface. It is one of the few hazards where the exposure is materially changed by land management and building choices, not only by where the county happens to be.
Worth noting for Grant County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Wildfire 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
Grant County's closest FEMA peer: Blount County, TN
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Grant County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Grant County: NRI composite 74.1 (Relatively Low).
Similar Major-disaster share
Grant County: 7 of 13 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Grant County shows 13 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
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: 74.1 (Relatively 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, 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 Flood, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Fire (4), Biological (2), Severe Storm (1).
How does Grant County's FEMA declaration record compare with the New Mexico average?
FEMA lists 13 declaration records for Grant County. That is 4% above the New Mexico county mean of 12.5. Its count is also 37% 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 7 major disaster declarations, representing 54% of all 13 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Grant County filed?
Grant County has 9 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $114.1K in payments, with an average of $12.7K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Grant County?
No. In Grant County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $14.9M. 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 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2025.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Grant County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Grant County, New Mexico has an overall risk score of 74.1 out of 100 (Relatively Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very High and community resilience is Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $20.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Grant County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Grant County is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Riverine Flooding (Relatively Moderate) and Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 168 years. 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 · New Mexico profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events