FEMA Records
12
Low volume
Kansas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Johnson County, KS
12 FEMA disaster declarations (1969-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively High. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 12
- FEMA declarations
- 9
- Major disasters
- 95
- NRI risk · Relatively High
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Johnson County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 12 declarations, more than 14% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 33% below the Kansas county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 5%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 5%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively High
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 12
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 1,155
- 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 20091 · Johnson County 12 declarations · rank 2716/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-HIGH · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 12
- MAJOR-MID 75%
- RANK-LOWER #2,716
- PHOTO-FINISH Crane
- NRI-HIGH 95
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -33%
Nearest declaration peer: Crane, TX (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Kansas state profile
Johnson County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Johnson County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Chisago · near 12
Chisago · near
12 declarations
- Crane · near 12
Crane · near
12 declarations
- Johnson · this county 12
Johnson · this county
12 declarations
- Seward · near 12
Seward · near
12 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Johnson County carries 12 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2716 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Johnson County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Johnson County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Johnson County
12 14th percentile higher than 14% 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
Johnson County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Johnson County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $110.2M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Winter Weather carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Very 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 Johnson County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 1,155 claims and $13.2M in payments. PlainHazard labels 500 or more claims a heavy registry record; that is a reporting bucket, not an official FEMA risk grade. The average paid claim was $11.4K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
Start with the state benchmark: a Kansas county averages 18.0 federal declaration records, while Johnson County has 12. The gap is 33% 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 sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 94.8/100 (Relatively High). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively High (roughly $256.8M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very Low and community resilience Relatively High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Winter Weather stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 11 times per year here, based on 214 historical events on record.
51 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Johnson County, KS · 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
9/30
12 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.6x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
8/25
12 declarations (0.7x state county average of 18)
Major Disaster Share Very High
19/25
9 of 12 declarations are major disasters (75%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Johnson County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Johnson 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
75%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
95
Relatively High
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Johnson 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Winter Weather | Very High | an average of 11 times per year |
| Tornado | Very High | roughly once every 3 years |
| Hail | Relatively High | an average of 9.2 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very High | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively High | 15 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Very High | an average of 52 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively High | an average of 2.3 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively High | an average of 2.5 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 997 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 9,122 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 7 times per year |
| Drought | Very Low | 6.2 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
Severe Storm 5
Biological 2
Flood 2
Hurricane 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
Tornado 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Johnson County's record, 42% 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 75.0%
of all 12 declarations
Emergency - 3 25.0%
of all 12 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 2 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 12 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 12 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4747 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-10-26 |
| 4504 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-29 |
| 3481 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4347 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2017-11-07 |
| 3282 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | EM | Severe Storm | 2007-12-12 |
| 3236 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1402 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2002-02-06 |
| 1258 | KS-FLOODING 10/31/98 | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-11-05 |
| 1254 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-10-14 |
| 1000 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-22 |
| 539 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1977-09-20 |
| 267 | TORNADOES, SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 1969-07-15 |
Storm Events in Kansas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Johnson County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 8,265 | 0 | 9 | $24.2M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 7,987 | 3 | 34 | $30.6M |
| High Wind | 1,553 | 1 | 7 | $10.2M |
| Drought | 1,272 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Flash Flood | 1,037 | 6 | 9 | $35.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
1,155
Total Paid
$13.2M
Avg Per Claim
$11.4K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively High
Score: 94.8/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively High
$256.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Winter Weather Very High
Tornado Very High
Hail Relatively High
Ice Storm Very High
Heat Wave Relatively High
Lightning Very High
Cold Wave Relatively High
Riverine Flooding Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Low
Landslide Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Drought Very Low
Hurricane 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: Winter Weather
Winter Weather in the model means the accumulation of snow and cold that disrupts rather than destroys: road closures, roof loads, burst pipes and lost heating. Its costs land heavily on transport and on households least able to absorb an interruption.
Worth noting for Johnson County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Winter Weather carries the highest modeled rating (Very 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
Johnson County's closest FEMA peer: Berkeley County, SC
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Johnson County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Johnson County: NRI composite 94.8 (Relatively High).
Similar Major-disaster share
Johnson County: 9 of 12 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Johnson County shows 12 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 Johnson County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Johnson 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: 94.8 (Relatively High).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 12. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Johnson County's NFIP claims file (1,155 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 Johnson County?
The most common disaster type in Johnson County is Severe Storm, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Flood (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Johnson County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Kansas average?
The typical Kansas county has 18.0 FEMA declaration records; Johnson County has 12, or 33% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 42% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Johnson County received?
Johnson County has received 9 major disaster declarations, representing 75% of all 12 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Johnson County filed?
Johnson County has 1,155 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $13.2M in payments, with an average of $11.4K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Johnson County?
No. In Johnson County, Winter Weather has the highest National Risk Index rating (Very High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $110.2M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Johnson County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Johnson County was 1999, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1969 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Johnson County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Johnson County, Kansas has an overall risk score of 94.8 out of 100 (Relatively High). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively High, representing $256.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Johnson County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Johnson County is Winter Weather (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Tornado (Very High) and Hail (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts winter weather here at an average of 11 times per year, drawn from 214 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 Johnson County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Kansas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events