FEMA Records
22
Above median
Nebraska · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Johnson County, NE
22 FEMA disaster declarations (1967-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 22
- FEMA declarations
- 20
- Major disasters
- 5
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Johnson County. Its 22 FEMA declarations are 31% above the Nebraska county mean and exceed the count for 57% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 5%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 5%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 22
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 3
- 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 31097 · Johnson County 22 declarations · rank 1249/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 22
- MAJOR-HEAVY 91%
- RANK-LOWER #1,249
- PHOTO-FINISH Hardy
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-ABOVE +31%
Nearest declaration peer: Hardy, WV (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Nebraska state profile
Johnson County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Johnson County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Hardy · near 22
Hardy · near
22 declarations
- Johnson · this county 22
Johnson · this county
22 declarations
- Prairie · near 22
Prairie · near
22 declarations
- St. Francis · near 22
St. Francis · near
22 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Johnson County carries 22 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1249 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Johnson County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Johnson County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Johnson County
22 Top 43% higher than 57% 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 $1.8M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Wildfire 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 Johnson County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits at the very bottom of FEMA's National Risk Index nationally, a composite score of 4.6/100 (rated Very Low). Projected losses are minimal, Expected Annual Loss reads Very Low (roughly $4.3M in annualized losses), and the county's exposure is shaped by a Very Low social-vulnerability profile and Relatively High community resilience. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Wildfire, 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 426 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 3 claims and $2.0K 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. Johnson County's 22 federal records stand 31% above the Nebraska county mean of 16.8. 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.
70 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Johnson County, NE · 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
16/30
22 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.1x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
16/25
22 declarations (1.3x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share Very High
23/25
20 of 22 declarations are major disasters (91%)
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
91%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
5
Very Low
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 426 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 7.6 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 13 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 12 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 8.1 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 12 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | an average of 4.3 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | an average of 3.4 times per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 48 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,795 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 6
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
Hurricane 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Johnson County's record, 50% 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 - 20 90.9%
of all 22 declarations
Emergency - 2 9.1%
of all 22 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 3 | |
| 2008 | 3 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
Show 2 earlier declaration years
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1967 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 22 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 22 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4868 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Winter Storm | 2025-05-21 |
| 4641 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-02-23 |
| 4521 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-04 |
| 3483 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4420 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-03-21 |
| 4225 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-06-25 |
| 1945 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, TORNADO, AND STRAIGHT-LIN | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-10-21 |
| 1902 | SEVERE STORMS, ICE JAMS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2010-04-21 |
| 1878 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-02-25 |
| 1864 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-12-16 |
| 1770 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-06-20 |
| 1765 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-05-30 |
| 1739 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2008-01-11 |
| 1706 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-06-06 |
| 3245 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUEES | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1517 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-05-25 |
| 1373 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2001-05-16 |
| 1123 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-06-25 |
| 998 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-19 |
| 954 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1992-08-19 |
Show 2 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 406 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-10-20 |
| 228 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1967-07-18 |
Storm Events in Nebraska
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Johnson County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 6,079 | 0 | 2 | $237.7M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,757 | 3 | 19 | $228.1M |
| Drought | 1,658 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| High Wind | 1,647 | 1 | 1 | $22.1M |
| Winter Storm | 1,155 | 0 | 2 | $335.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
3
Total Paid
$2.0K
Avg Per Claim
$657
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 4.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$4.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Earthquake 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: Wildfire
Wildfire risk in the model reflects fuel, terrain, weather and how much development sits in the wildland-urban interface. It is one of the few hazards where the exposure is materially changed by land management and building choices, not only by where the county happens to be.
Worth noting for Johnson County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Wildfire carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Low), 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: Clinton County, IA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Johnson County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Johnson County shows 22 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Johnson County: 20 of 22 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Johnson County: NRI composite 4.6 (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 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: 4.6 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 22. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 22 FEMA declarations, Johnson 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 Johnson County?
The most common disaster type in Johnson County is Severe Storm, with 11 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (6), Biological (2), Winter Storm (1).
How does Johnson County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Nebraska average?
FEMA lists 22 declaration records for Johnson County. That is 31% above the Nebraska county mean of 16.8. Its count is also 6% 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 Johnson County received?
Johnson County has received 20 major disaster declarations, representing 91% of all 22 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Johnson County filed?
Johnson County has 3 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $2.0K in payments, with an average of $657 per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Johnson County?
No. In Johnson County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $1.8M. 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 2008, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1967 to 2025.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Johnson County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Johnson County, Nebraska has an overall risk score of 4.6 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 $4.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Johnson County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Johnson County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively Low) and Drought (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 426 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Johnson County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Nebraska profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events