FEMA Records
18
Below median
Wisconsin · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
La Crosse County, WI
18 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 18
- FEMA declarations
- 15
- Major disasters
- 81
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for La Crosse County. Its 18 FEMA declarations are 46% above the Wisconsin county mean and exceed the count for 37% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 19%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 19%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 18
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 215
- 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.
How does La Crosse County compare?
La Crosse County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
18 37th percentile higher than 37% 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
La Crosse County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Wisconsin county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for La Crosse County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $19.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), while Cold Wave carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively 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 La Crosse County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 215 paid claims, totaling $1.2M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $5.8K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. La Crosse County's 18 federal records stand 46% above the Wisconsin county mean of 12.3. 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 80.5/100 (Relatively Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $53.7M 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, Cold Wave stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 6.9 times per year here, based on 132 historical events on record.
Declaration frequency
The FEMA register is busy by both local and national comparisons. It contains 18 entries for La Crosse County, including 15 Major Disaster records, 46% above the Wisconsin county mean. Across the 55-year span, that works out to 0.3 declarations a year. Severe Storm leads the file with 7 entries. Declaration type records the federal action taken, not every assistance program approved.
67 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
La Crosse County, WI · 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
13/30
18 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
18/25
18 declarations (1.5x state county average of 12)
Major Disaster Share Very High
21/25
15 of 18 declarations are major disasters (83%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in La Crosse County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Wisconsin Avg
+46%
State avg: 12.3
vs. National Avg
-13%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.3
Over 55 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - La Crosse 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
83%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
81
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike La Crosse 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Wave | Relatively High | an average of 6.9 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively High | an average of 3.6 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 3.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 5 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.3 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 16 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 36 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 4.8 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,710 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 15,817 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 7
Flood 6
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Drought 1
Tornado 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on La Crosse County's record, 39% 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 - 15 83.3%
of all 18 declarations
Emergency - 3 16.7%
of all 18 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 18 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 18 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4520 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-04 |
| 3454 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4459 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-08-27 |
| 4402 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2018-10-18 |
| 4343 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUD | DR | Severe Storm | 2017-10-07 |
| 4288 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2016-10-20 |
| 1768 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-06-14 |
| 1719 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-08-26 |
| 3249 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1526 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-06-18 |
| 1369 | FLOODING, SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Flood | 2001-05-11 |
| 1236 | SEVERE STORMS,STRAIGH LINE WINDS, TORNADOES,RAIN,AND FLOODI | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-07-24 |
| 994 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1993-07-02 |
| 559 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, HAIL & TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1978-07-07 |
| 3014 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1976-06-17 |
| 376 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-04-27 |
| 260 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-05-01 |
| 192 | TORNADOES, SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 1965-04-21 |
Storm Events in Wisconsin
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to La Crosse County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 3,504 | 5 | 23 | $45.0M |
| Hail | 2,620 | 0 | 0 | $57.8M |
| Winter Weather | 1,939 | 43 | 152 | $2.1M |
| Winter Storm | 1,338 | 15 | 86 | $2.3M |
| Flood | 740 | 12 | 4 | $115.6M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
215
Total Paid
$1.2M
Avg Per Claim
$5.8K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 80.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$53.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Relatively High
Hail Relatively High
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Drought Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Wildfire 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: Cold Wave
Cold Wave measures exposure to extreme cold rather than to snow. Its harm is concentrated in health effects, burst infrastructure and energy demand spikes, and it falls hardest where the building stock and the grid were not built with sustained cold in mind.
Worth noting for La Crosse County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively 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
La Crosse County's closest FEMA peer: Rio Arriba County, NM
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for La Crosse County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
La Crosse County: NRI composite 80.5 (Relatively Low).
Similar Major-disaster share
La Crosse County: 15 of 18 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
La Crosse County shows 18 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 La Crosse County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
La Crosse County's NFIP claims file (215 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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in La Crosse County?
The most common disaster type in La Crosse County is Severe Storm, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (6), Biological (2), Hurricane (1).
How does La Crosse County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Wisconsin average?
FEMA lists 18 declaration records for La Crosse County. That is 46% above the Wisconsin county mean of 12.3. Its count is also 13% below 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 La Crosse County received?
La Crosse County has received 15 major disaster declarations, representing 83% of all 18 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has La Crosse County filed?
La Crosse County has 215 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $1.2M in payments, with an average of $5.8K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in La Crosse County?
No. In La Crosse County, Cold Wave has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $19.3M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in La Crosse County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in La Crosse County was 2019, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for La Crosse County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, La Crosse County, Wisconsin has an overall risk score of 80.5 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $53.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to La Crosse County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for La Crosse County as of the latest release is Cold Wave (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively High) and Landslide (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 6.9 times per year, drawn from 132 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.
What this means for La Crosse County
La Crosse County, WI has 18 federal declaration records, 46% more than the Wisconsin county mean of 12; its history sits in PlainHazard's high activity band.
- Within this above-state-average declaration file, major disaster leads with 15 of 18 records; the category describes past federal action, not the next likely hazard. Wisconsin overview
- The state benchmark and national rank point the same way: this count tops the Wisconsin mean and the totals for 37% of 3,266 U.S. counties. Most-disaster rankings
- Use the data guide to separate this mid-volume insurance-claims file from declaration counts and modeled NRI risk. Disaster-data guide
An above-average declaration count records past federal responses; it does not predict the next event. Current warnings come from the National Weather Service and local emergency officials.
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.
All federal data sources used on this page
- FEMA OpenFEMA, Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 - all federally-declared disasters for this county. fema.gov/openfema/disaster-declarations
- FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) - per-county per-hazard risk ratings and expected annual loss. hazards.fema.gov/nri
- NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database - state-level storm/severe-weather event records, 2015-2025. ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainHazard Editorial
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.