FEMA Records
7
Low volume
Alaska · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
7 FEMA disaster declarations (1989-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
The verdict
Start with the local benchmark for Kodiak Island Borough: 7 FEMA declaration records are 3% below the Alaska county mean, even though the count is higher than 4% of counties in the national registry. On FEMA's distinct National Risk Index model, which combines expected loss with vulnerability and resilience, the county ranks in the riskiest 35%.
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.
Kodiak Island Borough vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
7 4th percentile higher than 4% 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 · 2026-08-03
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Kodiak Island Borough is led by Earthquake (about $13.5M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Landslide carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). 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.
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 65.1/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $25.3M in annualized losses), and a Relatively Low social-vulnerability profile combined with Very Low community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Landslide carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 55 times per year here.
The state comparison is the clearest context for Kodiak Island Borough's moderate federal record. Its 7 declarations sit 3% below the Alaska county mean, with 6 Major Disaster entries among them. 3 records concern Severe Storm, the file's most frequent incident type. Spread across 31 years, the registry rate is 0.2 per year. FEMA reports authorized programs separately from the DR, EM, and FM codes.
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 Alaska county averages 7.2 federal declaration records, while Kodiak Island Borough has 7. The gap is 3% 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.
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Kodiak Island Borough, AK · 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
7 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.3x national county average)
7 declarations (1.0x state county average of 7)
6 of 7 declarations are major disasters (86%)
4 different disaster types declared in Kodiak Island Borough
Activity Band
Moderate
vs. Alaska Avg
-3%
State avg: 7.2
vs. National Avg
-66%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.2
Over 31 years
Each axis: NRI risk rating (Very Low-Very High) on a 0-100 scale. Rounder = broad exposure; spiky = one or two hazards dominate.
FEMA Records
7
Low volume
Major Disaster share
86%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
65
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
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. These modeled frequencies are not forecasts.
| Hazard | NRI Risk Rating | Recurrence |
|---|---|---|
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | an average of 55 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 8 years |
| Tsunami | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 39 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 3.7 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 11,949 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 200 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 54,547 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Cold Wave | No Rating | roughly once every 27 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Kodiak Island Borough's record, 43% 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.
FEMA categorizes declarations as Major Disasters (DR), Emergencies (EM), or Fire Management Assistance (FM).
of all 7 declarations
of all 7 declarations
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1989 | 1 | |
How the 7 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 7 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4533 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-09 |
| 3446 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 1865 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, MUDSLIDES, AND ROCKSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-12-18 |
| 1445 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, COASTAL EROSION AND TIDAL SURGE | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-12-04 |
| 1316 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND AVALANCHES | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-02-17 |
| 1072 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1995-10-13 |
| 826 | SEVERE FREEZING | DR | Freezing | 1989-05-10 |
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Kodiak Island Borough.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 709 | 0 | 1 | $8.4M |
| Blizzard | 524 | 0 | 0 | $60.0K |
| Heavy Snow | 439 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Winter Storm | 385 | 0 | 0 | $200.0K |
| Flood | 182 | 0 | 0 | $81.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 65.1/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$25.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) Ratings reflect relative scores among all US counties. Data: hazards.fema.gov/nri
Landslide risk is a function of slope, soil and water, so it is usually a SECOND-ORDER hazard: it is triggered by the rainfall, snowmelt, wildfire burn scars or seismic shaking that came first. That is why a county can carry high landslide exposure whose realized damage is recorded under a flood or storm declaration instead.
Worth noting for Kodiak Island Borough: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Landslide carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Kodiak Island Borough. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Kodiak Island Borough: NRI composite 65.1 (Relatively Low).
Kodiak Island Borough: 6 of 7 of its declarations are Major.
Kodiak Island Borough shows 7 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
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 Kodiak Island Borough - capture-dated entries only.
Understanding disaster data
FEMA's National Risk Index flags Landslide as the top modeled exposure here (Relatively Moderate); the guide explains how that model differs from declaration counts.
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.
What this means for Kodiak Island Borough
Against a Alaska county mean of 7 declarations, Kodiak Island Borough, AK records 7, or 3% fewer. PlainHazard classifies that historical total as moderate activity.
A below-average federal record is not a safety guarantee. Use National Weather Service alerts and local emergency-management notices for present conditions, not this historical comparison.
PlainHazard derives this profile from FEMA's Disaster Declarations Summaries and National Risk Index data. The declaration comparison covers 3,266 U.S. counties and county equivalents in this database, refreshed as of 2026-08-03. Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Verify with FEMA → · Verify with FEMA NRI → · Verify with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.