FEMA Records
26
High volume
Kentucky · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Hardin County, KY
26 FEMA disaster declarations (1970-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 26
- FEMA declarations
- 20
- Major disasters
- 76
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Hardin County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 26 declarations, more than 75% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 7% below the Kentucky county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 24%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 24%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 26
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 478
- 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 21093 · Hardin County 26 declarations · rank 715/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 26
- MAJOR-MID 77%
- RANK-MID #715
- PHOTO-FINISH Hunterdon
- NRI-LOW 76
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -7%
Nearest declaration peer: Hunterdon, NJ (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Kentucky state profile
Hardin County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Hardin County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Hardin · this county 26
Hardin · this county
26 declarations
- Hunterdon · near 26
Hunterdon · near
26 declarations
- Pierce · near 26
Pierce · near
26 declarations
- San Sebastián · near 26
San Sebastián · near
26 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Hardin County carries 26 FEMA declaration records, ranked 715 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Hardin County ranks in the national declaration registry
Hardin County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Hardin County
26 Top 25% higher than 75% 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
Hardin County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Hardin County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $15.9M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Strong Wind carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High). 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 Hardin County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 478 paid claims, totaling $9.9M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $20.7K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Kentucky county averages 28.1 federal declaration records, while Hardin County has 26. The gap is 7% 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 75.5/100 (Relatively Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $36.1M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Low and community resilience Relatively Moderate, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Strong Wind stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 6.5 times per year here, based on 249 historical events on record.
70 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Hardin 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) High
19/30
26 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.3x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
26 declarations (0.9x state county average of 28)
Major Disaster Share Very High
19/25
20 of 26 declarations are major disasters (77%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Hardin County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Hardin 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
76
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Hardin 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 6.5 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.4 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 53 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 370 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 8.8 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.7 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 5.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 75 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 17,591 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 1.4 modeled event-days per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 12
Flood 4
Biological 2
Severe Ice Storm 2
Snowstorm 2
Tornado 2
Winter Storm 1
Hurricane 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Hardin County's record, 46% 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 - 20 76.9%
of all 26 declarations
Emergency - 6 23.1%
of all 26 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2025 | 3 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 2 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
Show 6 earlier declaration years
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1989 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1970 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 26 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 26 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 |
| 4864 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2025-04-24 |
| 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 |
| 4361 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2018-04-26 |
| 1976 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-05-04 |
| 1912 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, MUDSLIDES, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-05-11 |
| 1818 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2009-02-05 |
| 3302 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2009-01-28 |
| 1746 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-02-21 |
| 3231 | HURRICANE KATRINA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1537 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-08-06 |
| 1523 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-06-10 |
| 1471 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, MUD AND ROCK SLIDES, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-06-03 |
| 1414 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-05-07 |
| 1163 | SEVERE STORM, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-03-04 |
| 1089 | BLIZZARD OF 96 | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-13 |
Show 6 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1055 | TORNADOES, SEVERE WINDS, HAIL | DR | Tornado | 1995-06-13 |
| 1018 | SEVERE WEATHER, FREEZING RAIN, SLEET, SNW | DR | Snowstorm | 1994-03-16 |
| 821 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1989-02-24 |
| 568 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1978-12-12 |
| 420 | TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1974-04-04 |
| 288 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1970-06-05 |
Storm Events in Kentucky
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Hardin 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
478
Total Paid
$9.9M
Avg Per Claim
$20.7K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 75.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$36.1M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Strong Wind Relatively High
Ice Storm Relatively High
Hail Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Drought 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: Strong Wind
Strong Wind covers damaging non-thunderstorm, non-tornadic wind, the kind produced by steep pressure gradients and downslope events. It is a broad, frequent, low-drama hazard: roofs, signage, power lines and high-profile vehicles, spread across a wide area rather than concentrated on a path.
For Hardin County the two measures on this page point the same way: Strong Wind is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively High), 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
Hardin County's closest FEMA peer: Emmons County, ND
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Hardin County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Hardin County shows 26 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Hardin County: 20 of 26 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Hardin County: NRI composite 75.5 (Relatively 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 Hardin County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Hardin 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: 75.5 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 26. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Hardin County's NFIP claims file (478 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 Hardin County?
The most common disaster type in Hardin County is Severe Storm, with 12 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (4), Biological (2), Severe Ice Storm (2).
How does Hardin County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Kentucky average?
The typical Kentucky county has 28.1 FEMA declaration records; Hardin County has 26, or 7% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 25% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Hardin County received?
Hardin County has received 20 major disaster declarations, representing 77% of all 26 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Hardin County filed?
Hardin County has 478 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $9.9M in payments, with an average of $20.7K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Hardin County?
No. In Hardin County, Strong Wind has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $15.9M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Hardin County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Hardin County was 2025, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1970 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Hardin County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Hardin County, Kentucky has an overall risk score of 75.5 out of 100 (Relatively Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Low and community resilience is Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $36.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Hardin County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Hardin County as of the latest release is Strong Wind (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Ice Storm (Relatively High) and Hail (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts strong wind here at an average of 6.5 times per year, drawn from 249 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 Hardin County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Kentucky profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events