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Colorado · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index

Hinsdale County, CO

8 FEMA disaster declarations (1970-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.

8
FEMA declarations
5
Major disasters
1
NRI risk · Very Low
Flood
Top hazard

The verdict

Start with the local benchmark for Hinsdale County: 8 FEMA declaration records are 22% below the Colorado county mean, even though the count is higher than 6% of counties in the national registry. On FEMA's distinct National Risk Index model, which combines expected loss with vulnerability and resilience, the county ranks safer than 1%.

Safer than 1%
of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
Very Low
FEMA National Risk Index rating
8
FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
1
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.

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How does Hinsdale County compare?

Hinsdale County vs. all counties in this dataset

FEMA disaster declarations, all-time

8 6th percentile higher than 6% of 3,266 counties

This county 0 90 all U.S. counties FEMA tracks, bucketed by value

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

Hinsdale County's FEMA Risk Index score

FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Colorado county average

0/100100/100Colorado avg41/1001/100
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Colorado county average

Which hazard drives modeled loss here?

FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Hinsdale County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $1.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Landslide 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.

What does Hinsdale County's hazard record show?

Declaration frequency

The state comparison is the clearest context for Hinsdale County's moderate federal record. Its 8 declarations sit 22% below the Colorado county mean, with 5 Major Disaster entries among them. 3 records concern Flood, the file's most frequent incident type. Spread across 50 years, the registry rate is 0.2 per year. FEMA reports authorized programs separately from the DR, EM, and FM codes.

FEMA National Risk Index

This county sits at the very bottom of FEMA's National Risk Index nationally, a composite score of 1.0/100 (rated Very Low). Projected losses are minimal, Expected Annual Loss reads Very Low (roughly $1.8M in annualized losses), and the county's exposure is shaped by a Very Low social-vulnerability profile and Relatively Low community resilience. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Landslide, 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 roughly once every 1 years here.

Reading the federal records together

This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 1 claim and $0 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.

Start with the state benchmark: a Colorado county averages 10.2 federal declaration records, while Hinsdale County has 8. The gap is 22% 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.

45 /100

Historical Activity Index

Moderate historical activity

Hinsdale County, CO · 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) Low
6/30

8 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.4x national county average)

County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25

8 declarations (0.8x state county average of 10)

Major Disaster Share High
16/25

5 of 8 declarations are major disasters (63%)

Hazard Diversity High
13/20

5 different disaster types declared in Hinsdale County

Historical Declaration Activity

Activity Band

Moderate

vs. Colorado Avg

-22%

State avg: 10.2

vs. National Avg

-61%

National avg: 20.7

Avg Per Year

0.2

Over 50 years

FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Hinsdale County

Hinsdale County NRI risk profile 8-axis FEMA National Risk Index radar showing per-hazard scores for Earthquake 8, Flood 8, Hurricane 0, Tornado 8, Wildfire 8, Drought 0, Heat Wave 0, Winter Storm 8. The simple mean of these eight displayed scores is 5 of 100. Earthquake Flood Hurricane Tornado Wildfire Drought Heat Wave Winter Storm 5 8-hazard mean
Hinsdale County NRI risk profile FIPS 08053 · displayed-hazard mean 5/100
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.

FEMA Records

8

Low volume

Major Disaster share

63%

Major-heavy

NRI risk score

1

Very Low

Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release

How often does each hazard strike Hinsdale 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
Landslide Relatively Low roughly once every 1 years
Avalanche Relatively Moderate roughly once every 1 years
Wildfire Very Low roughly once every 315 years
Lightning Very Low an average of 58 times per year
Earthquake Very Low roughly once every 1,088 years
Riverine Flooding Very Low roughly once every 4 years
Winter Weather Very Low an average of 46 times per year
Cold Wave Very Low roughly once every 16,416 years
Tornado Very Low roughly once every 36 years
Hail Very Low roughly once every 8 years
Strong Wind Very Low roughly once every 12 years
Ice Storm Very Low roughly once every 67 years
Drought No Rating 75 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

Flood 3
Biological 2
Coastal Storm 1
Fire 1
Drought 1

What Flood declarations mean here

Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Hinsdale 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 - 5 62.5%

of all 8 declarations

Emergency - 3 37.5%

of all 8 declarations

FEMA Declarations Timeline

Year Declarations
2020 2
2005 1
2002 1
1984 1
1977 1
1973 1
1970 1

Disaster Declarations

How the 8 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.

Download these 8 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.

DR# Title Type Incident Date
4498 COVID-19 PANDEMIC DR Biological 2020-03-28
3436 COVID-19 EM Biological 2020-03-13
3224 HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION EM Coastal Storm 2005-09-05
1421 WILDFIRES DR Fire 2002-06-19
719 SEVERE STORMS, MUDSLIDES, LANDSLIDES & FLOODING DR Flood 1984-07-27
3025 DROUGHT EM Drought 1977-01-29
396 FLOODING & LANDSLIDES DR Flood 1973-07-06
293 HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING DR Flood 1970-09-22

Storm Events in Colorado

Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Hinsdale County.

Storm Type Events Fatalities Injuries Property Damage
Hail 4,913 0 100 $2.9B
Winter Weather 2,620 3 23 $22.5K
High Wind 1,992 5 6 $20.9M
Thunderstorm Wind 1,741 2 11 $5.4M
Winter Storm 1,497 0 0 $848.0K

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025

NFIP Flood Insurance Claims

Total Claims

1

Total Paid

$0

Avg Per Claim

$0

Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data

FEMA National Risk Index

Overall Risk

Very Low

Score: 1.0/100

Expected Annual Loss

Very Low

$1.8M/year

Social Vulnerability

Very Low

Community Resilience

Relatively Low

Hazard Risk Breakdown

Landslide Relatively Low
Avalanche Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Hail Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Drought No Rating
Heat Wave No Rating

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: Landslide

Landslide risk is a function of slope, soil and water, so it is usually a SECOND-ORDER hazard: it is triggered by the rainfall, snowmelt, wildfire burn scars or seismic shaking that came first. That is why a county can carry high landslide exposure whose realized damage is recorded under a flood or storm declaration instead.

Worth noting for Hinsdale County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Landslide carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Low), 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

Hinsdale County's closest FEMA peer: Wichita County, KS

Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Hinsdale County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.

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 Hinsdale County - capture-dated entries only.

Further reading for this county

Understanding disaster data

FEMA's National Risk Index flags Landslide as the top modeled exposure here (Relatively Low); the guide explains how that model differs from declaration counts.
More PlainHazard guides

Related

Colorado State Profile All Counties Most Disasters All Hazard Types

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most common disaster type in Hinsdale County?
The most common disaster type in Hinsdale County is Flood, with 3 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Coastal Storm (1), Fire (1).
How does Hinsdale County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Colorado average?
The typical Colorado county has 10.2 FEMA declaration records; Hinsdale County has 8, or 22% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 61% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Hinsdale County received?
Hinsdale County has received 5 major disaster declarations, representing 63% of all 8 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Hinsdale County filed?
Hinsdale County has 1 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $0 in payments, with an average of $0 per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Hinsdale County?
No. In Hinsdale County, Landslide has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $1.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Hinsdale County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Hinsdale County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1970 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Hinsdale County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Hinsdale County, Colorado has an overall risk score of 1.0 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $1.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Hinsdale County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Hinsdale County as of the latest release is Landslide (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Avalanche (Relatively Moderate) and Wildfire (Very Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts landslide here at roughly once every 1 years. 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.

What this means for Hinsdale County

Against a Colorado county mean of 10 declarations, Hinsdale County, CO records 8, or 22% fewer. PlainHazard classifies that historical total as moderate activity.

  • Major Disaster is the largest group (5 of 8) in a declaration history that remains below its state benchmark; frequency here is not a forecast. Colorado overview
  • Nationally the county exceeds 6% of recorded county totals, but its own Colorado benchmark is higher. The ranking keeps those two contexts separate. Most-disaster rankings
  • A short NFIP claims file cannot establish low flood exposure; the data guide explains the limits of each federal measure. Disaster-data guide

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.

All federal data sources used on this page
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainHazard Editorial

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.