FEMA Records
35
Very high volume
Washington · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
King County, WA
35 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very High. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 35
- FEMA declarations
- 31
- Major disasters
- 100
- NRI risk · Very High
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for King County. Its 35 FEMA declarations are 41% above the Washington county mean and exceed the count for 93% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 1%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 1%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very High
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 35
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 3,382
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
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 53033 · King County 35 declarations · rank 229/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-HIGH · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 35
- MAJOR-HEAVY 89%
- RANK-UPPER #229
- PHOTO-FINISH Okeechobee
- NRI-HIGH Very High
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +41%
Nearest declaration peer: Okeechobee, FL (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Washington state profile
King County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among King County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Brunswick · near 35
Brunswick · near
35 declarations
- Indian River · near 35
Indian River · near
35 declarations
- King · this county 35
King · this county
35 declarations
- Okeechobee · near 35
Okeechobee · near
35 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows King County carries 35 FEMA declaration records, ranked 229 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where King County ranks in the national declaration registry
King County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · King County
35 Top 7% higher than 93% 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
What does King County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 3,382 claims and $66.5M 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 $19.7K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. King County's 35 federal records stand 41% above the Washington county mean of 24.9. 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 99.7/100 (Very High). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very High (roughly $1.7B in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very Low and community resilience Very High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Earthquake stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 21 years here.
83 /100
Historical Activity Index
Very High historical activity
King County, WA · 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) Very High
25/30
35 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
18/25
35 declarations (1.4x state county average of 25)
Major Disaster Share Very High
22/25
31 of 35 declarations are major disasters (89%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 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
89%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
100
Very High
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Earthquake | Very High | roughly once every 21 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very High | roughly once every 4 years |
| Avalanche | Very High | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively High | an average of 4.3 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively High | 3.8 modeled event-days per year |
| Volcanic Activity | Relatively High | roughly once every 81 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 27 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | roughly once every 1 years |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 13,780 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 9.9 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 13 years |
| Coastal Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.2 times per year |
| Tsunami | Relatively Low | roughly once every 18 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 22 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 4 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 71 years |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 30 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 17
Severe Storm 11
Biological 2
Earthquake 2
Fire 1
Coastal Storm 1
Volcanic Eruption 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on King County's record, 49% of its declarations. Federal flood declarations cover two mechanisms that behave very differently: riverine flooding, which builds over days as a watershed drains and is usually forecast well in advance, and flash flooding, which can arrive in under an hour from rainfall that fell somewhere upstream.
Flood is also the one hazard class where a second federal dataset exists for the same events. The National Flood Insurance Program records what was actually paid on insured losses, so it measures a narrower thing than the declaration count: uninsured damage, and flooding outside mapped special flood hazard areas, never enters it. Reading the two together is more informative than either alone.
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 - 31 88.6%
of all 35 declarations
Emergency - 3 8.6%
of all 35 declarations
Fire Management - 1 2.9%
of all 35 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 2 | |
| 1996 | 2 | |
Show 10 earlier declaration years
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 2 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1987 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
| 1980 | 2 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 2 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 35 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 35 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4906 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2026-04-07 |
| 3629 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | EM | Flood | 2025-12-12 |
| 4775 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-04-28 |
| 5455 | BOLT CREEK FIRE | FM | Fire | 2022-09-10 |
| 4539 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2020-04-23 |
| 4481 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-22 |
| 3427 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4309 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2017-04-21 |
| 4056 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2012-03-05 |
| 1963 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-03-25 |
| 1825 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND RECORD AND NEAR RECORD SNOW | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-03-02 |
| 1817 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, LANDSLIDES, MUDSLIDES, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2009-01-30 |
| 1734 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-12-08 |
| 1682 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-02-14 |
| 1671 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-12-12 |
| 3227 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-07 |
| 1499 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-11-07 |
| 1361 | EARTHQUAKE | DR | Earthquake | 2001-03-01 |
| 1172 | HEAVY RAINS, SNOW MELT, FLOODING, LAND & MUD SLIDES | DR | Flood | 1997-04-02 |
| 1159 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, LAND & MUDS SLIDES,FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-17 |
Show 15 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1100 | HIGH WINDS, SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1996-02-09 |
| 1079 | SEVERE STORMS, HIGH WIND, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-01-03 |
| 981 | SEVERE STORMS & HIGH WIND | DR | Severe Storm | 1993-03-04 |
| 896 | SEVERE STORMS & HIGH TIDES | DR | Flood | 1991-03-08 |
| 883 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1990-11-26 |
| 852 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1990-01-18 |
| 784 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-12-15 |
| 757 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-02-15 |
| 623 | VOLCANIC ERUPTION, MT. ST. HELENS | DR | Volcanic Eruption | 1980-05-21 |
| 612 | STORMS, HIGH TIDES, MUDSLIDES & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1979-12-31 |
| 545 | SEVERE STORMS,MUDSLIDES, & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1977-12-10 |
| 492 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-12-13 |
| 328 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-03-24 |
| 196 | EARTHQUAKE | DR | Earthquake | 1965-05-11 |
| 185 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1964-12-29 |
Storm Events in Washington
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to King County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy Snow | 1,700 | 5 | 7 | $2.3M |
| High Wind | 614 | 15 | 6 | $1.1B |
| Wildfire | 299 | 4 | 4 | $1.8B |
| Winter Weather | 259 | 9 | 62 | $1.1M |
| Flood | 231 | 4 | 0 | $391.2M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
3,382
Total Paid
$66.5M
Avg Per Claim
$19.7K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very High
Score: 99.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very High
$1.7B/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Earthquake Very High
Riverine Flooding Very High
Avalanche Very High
Landslide Relatively High
Heat Wave Relatively High
Volcanic Activity Relatively High
Winter Weather Relatively High
Ice Storm Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Coastal Flooding Relatively Moderate
Tsunami Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Drought Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Hail 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: Earthquake
Earthquake is the model's clearest example of a hazard with no season and no warning. Its expected loss is driven less by how often shaking occurs than by how much of the building stock predates modern seismic codes, so exposure can be high in places where nothing has happened for a long time.
Worth noting for King County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Earthquake carries the highest modeled rating (Very High), while the county's declaration history is led by Flood. 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
King County's closest FEMA peer: Jackson County, TN
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 35 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
King County: 31 of 35 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
King County: NRI composite 99.7 (Very High).
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: 99.7 (Very High).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 35. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
King County's NFIP claims file (3,382 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 King County?
The most common disaster type in King County is Flood, with 17 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (11), Biological (2), Earthquake (2).
How does King County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Washington average?
FEMA lists 35 declaration records for King County. That is 41% above the Washington county mean of 24.9. Its count is also 69% 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 King County received?
King County has received 31 major disaster declarations, representing 89% of all 35 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has King County filed?
King County has 3,382 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $66.5M in payments, with an average of $19.7K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in King County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in King County was 2020, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for King County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, King County, Washington has an overall risk score of 99.7 out of 100 (Very High). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very High, representing $1.7B in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to King County?
FEMA's NRI data points to King County is Earthquake (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Riverine Flooding (Very High) and Avalanche (Very High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts earthquake here at roughly once every 21 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.
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 King County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Washington profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events