FEMA Records
18
Below median
Minnesota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Lake of the Woods County, MN
18 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 18
- FEMA declarations
- 16
- Major disasters
- 4
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Lake of the Woods County. Its 18 FEMA declarations are 2% above the Minnesota county mean and exceed the count for 37% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 4%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 4%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 18
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 5
- 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 27077 · Lake of the Woods County 18 declarations · rank 2054/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 18
- MAJOR-HEAVY 89%
- RANK-LOWER #2,054
- PHOTO-FINISH Monroe
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +2%
Nearest declaration peer: Monroe, TN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Minnesota state profile
Lake of the Woods County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Lake of the Woods County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Brooke · near 18
Brooke · near
18 declarations
- Lake of the Wo… · this county 18
Lake of the Wo… · this county
18 declarations
- Mecklenburg · near 18
Mecklenburg · near
18 declarations
- Monroe · near 18
Monroe · near
18 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Lake of the Woods County carries 18 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2054 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Lake of the Woods County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Lake of the Woods County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Lake of the Woods County
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 · 2026-08-25
Lake of the Woods County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Lake of the Woods County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $4.1M 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 Lake of the Woods 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 3.5/100 (rated Very Low). Projected losses are minimal, Expected Annual Loss reads Very Low (roughly $4.9M in annualized losses), and the county's exposure is shaped by a Very Low social-vulnerability profile and Very High 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 558 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 5 claims and $128.6K 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. Lake of the Woods County's 18 federal records stand 2% above the Minnesota county mean of 17.7. 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.
58 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Lake of the Woods County, MN · 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
13/25
18 declarations (1.0x state county average of 18)
Major Disaster Share Very High
22/25
16 of 18 declarations are major disasters (89%)
Hazard Diversity High
10/20
4 different disaster types declared in Lake of the Woods County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Lake of the Woods 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
4
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Lake of the Woods 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 558 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 24 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 16 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | an average of 18 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 27 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 69 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 14,706 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 12
Severe Storm 3
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Lake of the Woods County's record, 67% 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 - 16 88.9%
of all 18 declarations
Emergency - 2 11.1%
of all 18 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 2 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1970 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
| 1966 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4722 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2023-07-19 |
| 4659 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2022-07-13 |
| 4531 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-07 |
| 3453 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4182 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2014-07-21 |
| 1830 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-04-09 |
| 3242 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1419 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-06-14 |
| 1370 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Flood | 2001-05-16 |
| 1175 | SEVERE FLOODING, HIGH WINDS,SEVERE STORMS | DR | Flood | 1997-04-08 |
| 1158 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-16 |
| 1116 | FLOODING AND SEVERE STORMS | DR | Flood | 1996-06-01 |
| 582 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1979-04-30 |
| 440 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1974-06-10 |
| 291 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1970-07-22 |
| 255 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-04-18 |
| 215 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1966-03-22 |
| 188 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1965-04-11 |
Storm Events in Minnesota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Lake of the Woods County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,420 | 13 | 25 | $68.2M |
| Hail | 4,203 | 0 | 0 | $34.5M |
| Extreme Cold/Wind Chill | 1,789 | 7 | 4 | $55.0K |
| Winter Storm | 1,695 | 2 | 17 | $10.0M |
| Heavy Snow | 1,190 | 9 | 14 | $1.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
5
Total Paid
$128.6K
Avg Per Claim
$25.7K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 3.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$4.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Very Low
Drought Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Hail Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Earthquake 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.
Worth noting for Lake of the Woods County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Wildfire carries the highest modeled rating (Very Low), 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
Lake of the Woods County's closest FEMA peer: Jasper County, IA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Lake of the Woods County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Lake of the Woods County shows 18 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Lake of the Woods County: 16 of 18 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Lake of the Woods County: NRI composite 3.5 (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 Lake of the Woods County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Lake of the Woods 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: 3.5 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 18. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 18 FEMA declarations, Lake of the Woods 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 Lake of the Woods County?
The most common disaster type in Lake of the Woods County is Flood, with 12 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (3), Biological (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Lake of the Woods County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Minnesota average?
FEMA lists 18 declaration records for Lake of the Woods County. That is 2% above the Minnesota county mean of 17.7. 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 Lake of the Woods County received?
Lake of the Woods County has received 16 major disaster declarations, representing 89% of all 18 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Lake of the Woods County filed?
Lake of the Woods County has 5 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $128.6K in payments, with an average of $25.7K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Lake of the Woods County?
No. In Lake of the Woods County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Very Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $4.1M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Lake of the Woods County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Lake of the Woods County was 1997, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Lake of the Woods County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota has an overall risk score of 3.5 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $4.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Lake of the Woods County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Lake of the Woods County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Very Low). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Low) and Landslide (Very Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 558 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 Lake of the Woods County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Minnesota profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events