FEMA Records
23
Above median
Iowa · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Howard County, IA
23 FEMA disaster declarations (1968-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 23
- FEMA declarations
- 21
- Major disasters
- 16
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Howard County. Its 23 FEMA declarations are 19% above the Iowa county mean and exceed the count for 62% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 16%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 16%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 23
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 8
- 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 19089 · Howard County 23 declarations · rank 1219/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 23
- MAJOR-HEAVY 91%
- RANK-LOWER #1,219
- PHOTO-FINISH Roanoke
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-ABOVE +19%
Nearest declaration peer: Roanoke, VA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Iowa state profile
Howard County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Howard County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Amherst · near 23
Amherst · near
23 declarations
- Howard · this county 23
Howard · this county
23 declarations
- Roanoke · near 23
Roanoke · near
23 declarations
- Vance · near 23
Vance · near
23 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Howard County carries 23 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1219 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Howard County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Howard County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Howard County
23 Top 38% higher than 62% 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 $4.5M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Drought carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). 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?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 15.6/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $9.2M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Very Low social-vulnerability score and Relatively High community-resilience score. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Drought carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 16 modeled event-days per year here, based on 441 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 8 claims and $31.8K 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.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Howard County's 23 federal records stand 19% above the Iowa county mean of 19.3. That comparison describes how often federal action was recorded, including any Major Disaster, Emergency, and Fire Management entries shown on this page; it does not convert the count into future probability.
68 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Howard County, IA · 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
17/30
23 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.1x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
15/25
23 declarations (1.2x state county average of 19)
Major Disaster Share Very High
23/25
21 of 23 declarations are major disasters (91%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 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
91%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
16
Very 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 16 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 4.6 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 3.8 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 19 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 9.7 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | an average of 1 time per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 19 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 38 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 3.8 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 10,175 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,469 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 11
Flood 8
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Tornado 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Howard County's record, 48% 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 - 21 91.3%
of all 23 declarations
Emergency - 2 8.7%
of all 23 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 2 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
Show 6 earlier declaration years
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
| 1968 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 23 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 23 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4796 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-06-24 |
| 4642 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-02-23 |
| 4483 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-23 |
| 3480 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4421 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-03-23 |
| 4386 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2018-08-20 |
| 4289 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2016-10-31 |
| 4281 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2016-09-29 |
| 4234 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-07-31 |
| 4135 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2013-07-31 |
| 4126 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2013-07-02 |
| 1930 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-07-29 |
| 1763 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-05-27 |
| 1688 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-03-14 |
| 3239 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1518 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-05-25 |
| 1282 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-07-22 |
| 1230 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1998-07-02 |
| 996 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-09 |
| 879 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1990-09-06 |
Show 3 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 348 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-08-18 |
| 269 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-08-14 |
| 240 | TORNADOES & SEVERE STORMS | DR | Tornado | 1968-05-29 |
Storm Events in Iowa
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Howard County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,928 | 6 | 227 | $40.5M |
| Hail | 3,736 | 0 | 0 | $4.3M |
| Heavy Rain | 2,394 | 0 | 0 | $292.0K |
| Drought | 1,556 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Winter Storm | 1,543 | 3 | 4 | $2.8M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
8
Total Paid
$31.8K
Avg Per Claim
$4.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 15.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$9.2M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Earthquake 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: Drought
Drought is the slowest of the modeled hazards and the least visible: it does its damage to agriculture, water supply and soil over seasons rather than hours, so it rarely produces the kind of single-day damage that drives a disaster declaration. FEMA scores it in event-days per year rather than discrete events for exactly that reason.
Worth noting for Howard County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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
Howard County's closest FEMA peer: Pierce County, ND
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Howard County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Howard County shows 23 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Howard County: 21 of 23 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Howard County: NRI composite 15.6 (Very 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 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: 15.6 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 23. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 23 FEMA declarations, Howard County sits in the high-volume declaration band - see how that count ranks against other U.S. counties.
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 11 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (8), Biological (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Howard County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Iowa average?
FEMA lists 23 declaration records for Howard County. That is 19% above the Iowa county mean of 19.3. Its count is also 11% above the national county mean of 20.7. A larger declaration history records more federal actions; it is not a forecast of the county's next hazard.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Howard County received?
Howard County has received 21 major disaster declarations, representing 91% of all 23 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Howard County filed?
Howard County has 8 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $31.8K in payments, with an average of $4.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Howard County?
No. In Howard County, Drought has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $4.5M. 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 2013, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1968 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Howard County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Howard County, Iowa has an overall risk score of 15.6 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $9.2M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Howard County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Howard County as of the latest release is Drought (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively Low) and Strong Wind (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 16 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 441 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 · Iowa profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events