FEMA Records
15
Below median
Indiana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Howard County, IN
15 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 15
- FEMA declarations
- 9
- Major disasters
- 64
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Howard County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 15 declarations, more than 23% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 12% below the Indiana county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 36%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 36%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 15
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 488
- 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 18067 · Howard County 15 declarations · rank 2448/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 15
- MAJOR-MID 60%
- RANK-LOWER #2,448
- PHOTO-FINISH Polk
- NRI-LOW 64
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -12%
Nearest declaration peer: Polk, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Indiana state profile
Howard County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Howard County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Flathead · near 15
Flathead · near
15 declarations
- Howard · this county 15
Howard · this county
15 declarations
- Murray · near 15
Murray · near
15 declarations
- Polk · near 15
Polk · near
15 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Howard County carries 15 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2448 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Howard County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Howard County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Howard County
15 23rd percentile higher than 23% 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
Howard County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Howard County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $10.6M 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 Howard County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 488 paid claims, totaling $9.7M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $20.0K 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 Howard County has 15. The gap is 12% 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 carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 63.7/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $23.4M in annualized losses), and a Relatively Moderate social-vulnerability profile combined with Very High community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. 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 5.1 times per year here, based on 196 historical events on record.
57 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Howard 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
11/30
15 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
15 declarations (0.9x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share High
15/25
9 of 15 declarations are major disasters (60%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Howard County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Howard 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
60%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
64
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Howard 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 5.1 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 4 years |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.4 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 608 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 9.9 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.6 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 4.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 1.8 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 45 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 20 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 78,694 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 5
Snowstorm 3
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Hurricane 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
Flood 1
Tornado 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Howard County's record, 33% 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 - 9 60.0%
of all 15 declarations
Emergency - 6 40.0%
of all 15 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 2 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 15 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 15 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 |
| 4704 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-04-15 |
| 4515 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-03 |
| 3456 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 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 |
| 1476 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-07-11 |
| 3162 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2001-01-24 |
| 3135 | IN-WINTER STORM 12/23/98 | EM | Snowstorm | 1999-01-15 |
| 1234 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-07-22 |
| 899 | SEVERE ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 1991-03-29 |
| 891 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1991-01-05 |
| 189 | TORNADOES & SEVERE STORMS | DR | Tornado | 1965-04-14 |
Storm Events in Indiana
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Howard 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
488
Total Paid
$9.7M
Avg Per Claim
$20.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 63.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$23.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Strong Wind Relatively High
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Lightning 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: 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 Howard 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
Howard County's closest FEMA peer: Indiana County, PA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Howard County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Howard County: NRI composite 63.7 (Relatively Low).
Similar Major-disaster share
Howard County: 9 of 15 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Howard County shows 15 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 Howard County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Howard 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: 63.7 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 15. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Howard County's NFIP claims file (488 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 Howard County?
The most common disaster type in Howard County is Severe Storm, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Snowstorm (3), Biological (2), Winter Storm (1).
How does Howard County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Indiana average?
The typical Indiana county has 17.1 FEMA declaration records; Howard County has 15, or 12% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 28% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Howard County received?
Howard County has received 9 major disaster declarations, representing 60% of all 15 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Howard County filed?
Howard County has 488 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $9.7M in payments, with an average of $20.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Howard County?
No. In Howard County, Strong Wind has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $10.6M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Howard County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Howard County was 1991, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Howard County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Howard County, Indiana has an overall risk score of 63.7 out of 100 (Relatively Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Moderate and community resilience is Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $23.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Howard County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Howard County is Strong Wind (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Tornado (Relatively Moderate) and Hail (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts strong wind here at an average of 5.1 times per year, drawn from 196 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 Howard County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Indiana profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events