FEMA Records
10
Low volume
Ohio · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
10 FEMA disaster declarations (1977-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
The verdict
Henry County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 10 declarations, more than 10% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 32% below the Ohio county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 34%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
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.
Henry County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
10 10th percentile higher than 10% 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 · 2026-08-03
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Henry County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $9.6M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Hail 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.
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 163 paid claims, totaling $1.3M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $8.3K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Ohio county averages 14.6 federal declaration records, while Henry County has 10. The gap is 32% 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's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 33.8/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $13.4M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very Low) and community resilience (Very High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Hail, 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 an average of 3.3 times per year here, based on 125 historical events on record.
Nationally, Henry County's 10 FEMA records form a high-volume history; within Ohio, however, the count is 32% below the county mean. 5 entries carry the Major Disaster classification. The largest incident group is Severe Storm, appearing 4 times. The full 43-year record averages 0.2 declarations annually. A DR label alone does not say whether Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, or both followed.
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Henry County, OH · 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
10 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.5x national county average)
10 declarations (0.7x state county average of 15)
5 of 10 declarations are major disasters (50%)
5 different disaster types declared in Henry County
Activity Band
High
vs. Ohio Avg
-32%
State avg: 14.6
vs. National Avg
-52%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.2
Over 43 years
Each axis: NRI risk rating (Very Low-Very High) on a 0-100 scale. Rounder = broad exposure; spiky = one or two hazards dominate.
FEMA Records
10
Low volume
Major Disaster share
50%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
34
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 3.3 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 749 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 0.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 9.8 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 69 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 3.9 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 15 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 3.3 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 40 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 4.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 96,144 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Henry County's record, 40% 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.
FEMA categorizes declarations as Major Disasters (DR), Emergencies (EM), or Fire Management Assistance (FM).
of all 10 declarations
of all 10 declarations
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1982 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
How the 10 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 10 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4507 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-31 |
| 3457 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 3346 | SEVERE STORMS | EM | Severe Storm | 2012-06-30 |
| 3250 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1580 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2005-02-15 |
| 1556 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-09-19 |
| 1444 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-11-18 |
| 653 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1982-03-26 |
| 3055 | BLIZZARDS & SNOWSTORMS | EM | Snowstorm | 1978-01-26 |
| 3029 | SNOWSTORMS | EM | Snowstorm | 1977-02-02 |
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Henry County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 6,938 | 6 | 39 | $60.4M |
| Winter Weather | 2,101 | 7 | 42 | $3.3M |
| Hail | 1,749 | 0 | 0 | $673.5K |
| Flood | 1,607 | 9 | 0 | $84.5M |
| Flash Flood | 1,089 | 9 | 7 | $112.2M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
Total Claims
163
Total Paid
$1.3M
Avg Per Claim
$8.3K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 33.8/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$13.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) Ratings reflect relative scores among all US counties. Data: hazards.fema.gov/nri
Hail is among the most expensive hazards in the model relative to how little it threatens life. It concentrates on roofs, vehicles and crops, and a single severe storm can generate an insurance loss across a metropolitan area without a single injury.
For Henry County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hail 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
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Henry County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Henry County shows 10 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Henry County: 5 of 10 of its declarations are Major.
Henry County: NRI composite 33.8 (Very Low).
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 Henry County - capture-dated entries only.
Understanding disaster data
Henry County's NFIP claims file (163 claims) and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records - this guide separates them from modeled NRI risk.
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.
What this means for Henry County
Against a Ohio county mean of 15 declarations, Henry County, OH records 10, or 32% fewer. PlainHazard classifies that historical total as high activity.
A below-average federal record is not a safety guarantee. Use National Weather Service alerts and local emergency-management notices for present conditions, not this historical comparison.
PlainHazard derives this profile from FEMA's Disaster Declarations Summaries and National Risk Index data. The declaration comparison covers 3,266 U.S. counties and county equivalents in this database, refreshed as of 2026-08-03. Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Verify with FEMA → · Verify with FEMA NRI → · Verify with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.