FEMA Records
15
Below median
Minnesota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Itasca County, MN
15 FEMA disaster declarations (1966-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 15
- FEMA declarations
- 12
- Major disasters
- 77
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Itasca 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 15% below the Minnesota 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
- 15
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 12
- 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 27061 · Itasca County 15 declarations · rank 2461/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 15
- MAJOR-HEAVY 80%
- RANK-LOWER #2,461
- PHOTO-FINISH Polk
- NRI-LOW 77
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -15%
Nearest declaration peer: Polk, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Minnesota state profile
Itasca County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Itasca County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Flathead · near 15
Flathead · near
15 declarations
- Itasca · this county 15
Itasca · 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 Itasca County carries 15 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2461 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Itasca County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Itasca County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Itasca 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
Itasca County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Itasca County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $14.1M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Cold Wave 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 Itasca County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 76.7/100 (Relatively Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $31.4M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively High and community resilience Very High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Cold Wave stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 17 times per year here, based on 330 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 12 claims and $121.9K 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 Minnesota county averages 17.7 federal declaration records, while Itasca County has 15. The gap is 15% 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.
55 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Itasca County, MN · 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 (0.8x state county average of 18)
Major Disaster Share Very High
20/25
12 of 15 declarations are major disasters (80%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Itasca County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Itasca 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
80%
Mostly major
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 Itasca 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Wave | Relatively High | an average of 17 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 1 time per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 0.8 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 28 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 18 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 5,860 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 12 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 16 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 13,699 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
Flood 5
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Drought 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Itasca 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.
Declaration Types
What DR / EM / FM mean
FEMA categorizes declarations as Major Disasters (DR), Emergencies (EM), or Fire Management Assistance (FM).
Major Disaster - 12 80.0%
of all 15 declarations
Emergency - 3 20.0%
of all 15 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
| 1966 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4797 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2024-06-28 |
| 4666 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-08-09 |
| 4531 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-07 |
| 3453 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4390 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2018-09-05 |
| 4069 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2012-07-06 |
| 3242 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1419 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-06-14 |
| 1283 | SEVERE STORMS, WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-07-28 |
| 1064 | SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS, WINDS, FLOODING, TORNADOES, AND HEAT | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-08-18 |
| 582 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1979-04-30 |
| 3013 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1976-06-17 |
| 476 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1975-07-17 |
| 350 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-08-25 |
| 215 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1966-03-22 |
Storm Events in Minnesota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Itasca County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,420 | 13 | 25 | $68.2M |
| Hail | 4,203 | 0 | 0 | $34.5M |
| Extreme Cold/Wind Chill | 1,789 | 7 | 4 | $55.0K |
| Winter Storm | 1,695 | 2 | 17 | $10.0M |
| Heavy Snow | 1,190 | 9 | 14 | $1.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
12
Total Paid
$121.9K
Avg Per Claim
$10.2K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 76.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$31.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Relatively High
Strong Wind Relatively High
Landslide Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Drought Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Ice Storm 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: Cold Wave
Cold Wave measures exposure to extreme cold rather than to snow. Its harm is concentrated in health effects, burst infrastructure and energy demand spikes, and it falls hardest where the building stock and the grid were not built with sustained cold in mind.
Worth noting for Itasca County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave 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
Itasca County's closest FEMA peer: Stone County, MO
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Itasca County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Itasca County: NRI composite 76.7 (Relatively Low).
Similar Major-disaster share
Itasca County: 12 of 15 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Itasca 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 Itasca County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Itasca 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: 76.7 (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
Most disaster-prone counties
With 15 FEMA declarations, Itasca 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 Itasca County?
The most common disaster type in Itasca County is Severe Storm, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (5), Biological (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Itasca County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Minnesota average?
The typical Minnesota county has 17.7 FEMA declaration records; Itasca County has 15, or 15% 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 Itasca County received?
Itasca County has received 12 major disaster declarations, representing 80% of all 15 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Itasca County filed?
Itasca County has 12 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $121.9K in payments, with an average of $10.2K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Itasca County?
No. In Itasca County, Cold Wave has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $14.1M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Itasca County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Itasca County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1966 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Itasca County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Itasca County, Minnesota has an overall risk score of 76.7 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively High; on community resilience, Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $31.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Itasca County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Itasca County as of the latest release is Cold Wave (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Strong Wind (Relatively High) and Landslide (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 17 times per year, drawn from 330 historical events on record. These scores are based on FEMA's analysis of historical event frequency, exposed assets, and community vulnerability.
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 Itasca County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Minnesota profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events