FEMA Records
17
Below median
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
King County, TX
17 FEMA disaster declarations (1993-2021), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 17
- FEMA declarations
- 7
- Major disasters
- 0
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
King County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 17 declarations, more than 32% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 19% below the Texas county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 1%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 1%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 17
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 7
- fire declarations, the most common hazard here
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Fire Management Assistance (FM) records, which are not presidential disaster declarations, alongside Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 48269 · King County 17 declarations · rank 2082/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 17
- MAJOR-LIGHT 41%
- RANK-LOWER #2,082
- PHOTO-FINISH Curry
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-BELOW -19%
Nearest declaration peer: Curry, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Texas state profile
King County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among King County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Curry · near 17
Curry · near
17 declarations
- King · this county 17
King · this county
17 declarations
- Murray · near 17
Murray · near
17 declarations
- Washington · near 17
Washington · near
17 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows King County carries 17 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2082 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
King County versus quieter counties in this dataset
King County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · King County
17 32nd percentile higher than 32% 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
King County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for King County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $114.6K Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Wildfire carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Very 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 King 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 0.3/100 (rated Very Low). Projected losses are minimal, Expected Annual Loss reads Very Low (roughly $401.2K in annualized losses), and the county's exposure is shaped by a Very High social-vulnerability profile and Relatively Low community resilience. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Wildfire, only reaches Very 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 216 years here.
Reading the federal records together
No paid-claim row for this county appears in the NFIP county table used by PlainHazard. That absence is not evidence that flooding never occurred: the register observes claims under federal flood-insurance policies, not uninsured losses, emergency reports, or every flood outside the program. The FEMA declaration history below is therefore the available federal-action record on this page.
Start with the state benchmark: a Texas county averages 20.9 federal declaration records, while King County has 17. The gap is 19% 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.
47 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
King County, TX · 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
12/30
17 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25
17 declarations (0.8x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
10/25
7 of 17 declarations are major disasters (41%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in King County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - King 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
41%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
0
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike King 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 | Very Low | roughly once every 216 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 126 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 5.1 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | an average of 2.1 times per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 3.9 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 5.4 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,114 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 14 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 49 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 7
Hurricane 3
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Severe Storm 2
Drought 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on King County's record, 41% of its declarations. Wildfire is the one hazard here with its own dedicated federal instrument: the Fire Management Assistance Grant, which appears in this data as an FM record. An FMAG can be authorised while a fire is still burning, on a timescale of hours, because its purpose is to reimburse the cost of fighting a fire that threatens to become a major disaster.
That distinction matters when comparing counties. An FM declaration is not a presidential major disaster declaration and does not carry the same assistance programmes, so a fire-heavy county's total is not directly comparable with a hurricane-heavy county's total unless the declaration types are separated, which is why they are listed separately on this page.
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).
Emergency - 8 47.1%
of all 17 declarations
Major Disaster - 7 41.2%
of all 17 declarations
Fire Management - 2 11.8%
of all 17 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 17 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 17 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4586 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-19 |
| 3554 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-14 |
| 4485 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3458 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4255 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-02-09 |
| 1999 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2011-07-01 |
| 2884 | SWENSON FIRE | FM | Fire | 2011-04-09 |
| 2752 | EIGHTY-TWO FIRE | FM | Fire | 2008-03-14 |
| 3284 | WILDFIRES | EM | Fire | 2008-03-14 |
| 1624 | EXTREME WILDFIRE THREAT | DR | Fire | 2006-01-11 |
| 1606 | HURRICANE RITA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-09-24 |
| 3261 | HURRICANE RITA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-21 |
| 3216 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-02 |
| 3142 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARDS | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
| 1239 | TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-26 |
| 3117 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Fire | 1996-02-23 |
| 3113 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Drought | 1993-09-10 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to King County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 14,072 | 0 | 15 | $7.4B |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 10,293 | 41 | 141 | $369.9M |
| Drought | 7,032 | 0 | 0 | $86.0K |
| Flash Flood | 4,728 | 338 | 24 | $47.6B |
| Heat | 4,079 | 119 | 405 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 0.3/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$401.2K/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Very Low
Drought Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Lightning 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: 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.
For King County the two measures on this page point the same way: Wildfire is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Very Low), and Fire 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
King County's closest FEMA peer: Aguadilla Municipio, PR
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for King County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
King County shows 17 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
King County: 7 of 17 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
King County: NRI composite 0.3 (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 King County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for King 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: 0.3 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 17. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 17 FEMA declarations, King 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 King County?
The most common disaster type in King County is Fire, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (3), Severe Ice Storm (2), Biological (2).
How does King County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
The typical Texas county has 20.9 FEMA declaration records; King County has 17, or 19% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 18% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has King County received?
King County has received 7 major disaster declarations, representing 41% of all 17 disaster declarations.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in King County?
No. In King County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Very Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $114.6K. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in King County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in King County was 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1993 to 2021.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for King County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, King County, Texas has an overall risk score of 0.3 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very High; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $401.2K in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to King County?
FEMA's NRI data points to King County is Wildfire (risk rating: Very Low). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Low) and Hail (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 216 years. The underlying methodology weighs historical event frequency against 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.
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 King County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events