FEMA Records
19
Below median
Illinois · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Hancock County, IL
19 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 19
- FEMA declarations
- 15
- Major disasters
- 31
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Hancock County. Its 19 FEMA declarations are 48% above the Illinois county mean and exceed the count for 41% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 31%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 31%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 19
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 288
- 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 17067 · Hancock County 19 declarations · rank 1798/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 19
- MAJOR-MID 79%
- RANK-LOWER #1,798
- PHOTO-FINISH Bartow
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +48%
Nearest declaration peer: Bartow, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Illinois state profile
Hancock County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Hancock County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Bartow · near 19
Bartow · near
19 declarations
- Hancock · this county 19
Hancock · this county
19 declarations
- Union · near 19
Union · near
19 declarations
- Warren · near 19
Warren · near
19 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Hancock County carries 19 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1798 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Hancock County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Hancock County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Hancock County
19 41st percentile higher than 41% 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
Hancock County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Hancock County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $2.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Drought 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 Hancock County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 288 paid claims, totaling $5.9M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $20.4K 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. Hancock County's 19 federal records stand 48% above the Illinois county mean of 12.9. 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 31.1/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $8.4M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively High) and community resilience (Relatively High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Drought carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 4 modeled event-days per year here, based on 105 historical events on record.
67 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Hancock County, IL · 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
19 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
18/25
19 declarations (1.5x state county average of 13)
Major Disaster Share Very High
20/25
15 of 19 declarations are major disasters (79%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Hancock County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Hancock 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
79%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
31
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Hancock 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 4 modeled event-days per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 9.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.6 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.3 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 3.5 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 46 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 622 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 11 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | an average of 2.7 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 14,732 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 8
Severe Storm 4
Snowstorm 3
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Tornado 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Hancock County's record, 42% 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 - 15 78.9%
of all 19 declarations
Emergency - 4 21.1%
of all 19 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1987 | 1 | |
Show 3 earlier declaration years
| 1985 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 19 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 19 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4728 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-08-15 |
| 4489 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-26 |
| 3435 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4461 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-09-19 |
| 4116 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2013-05-10 |
| 1960 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2011-03-17 |
| 1771 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-06-24 |
| 3269 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2006-12-29 |
| 3230 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-07 |
| 1469 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-05-15 |
| 1416 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 2002-05-21 |
| 1368 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2001-05-09 |
| 3134 | IL-WINTER STORM 1/1/99 | EM | Snowstorm | 1999-01-08 |
| 1112 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-05-06 |
| 997 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-09 |
| 798 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1987-08-21 |
| 735 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1985-03-29 |
| 438 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1974-06-10 |
| 373 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-04-26 |
Storm Events in Illinois
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Hancock County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 7,218 | 9 | 67 | $46.0M |
| Hail | 3,195 | 0 | 0 | $27.1M |
| Winter Weather | 1,363 | 14 | 49 | $1.8M |
| Flood | 1,221 | 14 | 11 | $84.3M |
| Flash Flood | 1,133 | 11 | 3 | $1.1B |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
288
Total Paid
$5.9M
Avg Per Claim
$20.4K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 31.1/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$8.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Riverine Flooding 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: Drought
Drought is the slowest of the modeled hazards and the least visible: it does its damage to agriculture, water supply and soil over seasons rather than hours, so it rarely produces the kind of single-day damage that drives a disaster declaration. FEMA scores it in event-days per year rather than discrete events for exactly that reason.
Worth noting for Hancock County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought 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
Hancock County's closest FEMA peer: Oktibbeha County, MS
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Hancock County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Hancock County shows 19 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Hancock County: 15 of 19 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Hancock County: NRI composite 31.1 (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 Hancock County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Hancock 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: 31.1 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 19. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Hancock County's NFIP claims file (288 claims) and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records - this guide separates them from modeled NRI risk.
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 Hancock County?
The most common disaster type in Hancock County is Flood, with 8 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (4), Snowstorm (3), Biological (2).
How does Hancock County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Illinois average?
FEMA lists 19 declaration records for Hancock County. That is 48% above the Illinois county mean of 12.9. Its count is also 8% 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 Hancock County received?
Hancock County has received 15 major disaster declarations, representing 79% of all 19 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Hancock County filed?
Hancock County has 288 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $5.9M in payments, with an average of $20.4K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Hancock County?
No. In Hancock County, Drought has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $2.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Hancock County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Hancock County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Hancock County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Hancock County, Illinois has an overall risk score of 31.1 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively High, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $8.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Hancock County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Hancock County as of the latest release is Drought (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Heat Wave (Relatively Moderate) and Landslide (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 4 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 105 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 Hancock County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Illinois profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events