FEMA Records
13
Low volume
Indiana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Hendricks County, IN
13 FEMA disaster declarations (1996-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 13
- FEMA declarations
- 8
- Major disasters
- 77
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Hendricks County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 13 declarations, more than 17% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 24% below the Indiana county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 23%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 23%
- 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
- 77
- 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 18063 · Hendricks County 13 declarations · rank 2707/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 13
- MAJOR-MID 62%
- RANK-LOWER #2,707
- PHOTO-FINISH Clarke
- NRI-LOW 77
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -24%
Nearest declaration peer: Clarke, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Indiana state profile
Hendricks County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Hendricks 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
- Hendricks · this county 13
Hendricks · this county
13 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Hendricks County carries 13 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2707 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Hendricks County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Hendricks County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Hendricks 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
Hendricks County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Hendricks County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $34.1M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Winter Weather 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 Hendricks County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 77 paid claims, totaling $695.6K. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $9.0K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Indiana county averages 17.1 federal declaration records, while Hendricks County has 13. The gap is 24% 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 76.8/100 (Relatively Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $60.4M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very Low and community resilience Very High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Winter Weather stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 10 times per year here, based on 191 historical events on record.
48 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Hendricks 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
9/30
13 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.6x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
9/25
13 declarations (0.8x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share High
15/25
8 of 13 declarations are major disasters (62%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Hendricks County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Hendricks 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
62%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
77
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Hendricks 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 10 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.2 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 451 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.2 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.8 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 4.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 48 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 2.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 10 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 142 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 34,289 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 6
Biological 2
Snowstorm 2
Winter Storm 1
Hurricane 1
Flood 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Hendricks 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 - 8 61.5%
of all 13 declarations
Emergency - 5 38.5%
of all 13 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3641 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4515 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-03 |
| 3456 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4173 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2014-04-22 |
| 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 |
| 1433 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-09-25 |
| 3135 | IN-WINTER STORM 12/23/98 | EM | Snowstorm | 1999-01-15 |
| 1109 | BLIZZARD OF 96 | DR | Flood | 1996-04-02 |
Storm Events in Indiana
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Hendricks 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
77
Total Paid
$695.6K
Avg Per Claim
$9.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 76.8/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$60.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Winter Weather Relatively High
Hail Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Drought 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: Winter Weather
Winter Weather in the model means the accumulation of snow and cold that disrupts rather than destroys: road closures, roof loads, burst pipes and lost heating. Its costs land heavily on transport and on households least able to absorb an interruption.
Worth noting for Hendricks County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Winter Weather carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively High), while the county's declaration history is led by Severe Storm. 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
Hendricks County's closest FEMA peer: Columbia County, GA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Hendricks County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Hendricks County: NRI composite 76.8 (Relatively Low).
Similar Major-disaster share
Hendricks County: 8 of 13 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Hendricks County shows 13 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
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 Hendricks County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Hendricks 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: 76.8 (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
Understanding disaster data
Hendricks County's NFIP claims file (77 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 Hendricks County?
The most common disaster type in Hendricks County is Severe Storm, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Snowstorm (2), Winter Storm (1).
How does Hendricks County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Indiana average?
The typical Indiana county has 17.1 FEMA declaration records; Hendricks County has 13, or 24% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 37% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Hendricks County received?
Hendricks County has received 8 major disaster declarations, representing 62% of all 13 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Hendricks County filed?
Hendricks County has 77 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $695.6K in payments, with an average of $9.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Hendricks County?
No. In Hendricks County, Winter Weather has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $34.1M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Hendricks County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Hendricks 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 Hendricks County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Hendricks County, Indiana has an overall risk score of 76.8 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $60.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Hendricks County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Hendricks County is Winter Weather (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively Moderate) and Tornado (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts winter weather here at an average of 10 times per year, drawn from 191 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 Hendricks County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Indiana profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events