FEMA Records
14
Low volume
Montana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Lincoln County, MT
14 FEMA disaster declarations (1974-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 14
- FEMA declarations
- 7
- Major disasters
- 64
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Lincoln County. Its 14 FEMA declarations are 27% above the Montana county mean and exceed the count for 20% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 36%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 36%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 14
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 39
- 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 30053 · Lincoln County 14 declarations · rank 2596/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 14
- MAJOR-MID 50%
- RANK-LOWER #2,596
- PHOTO-FINISH Pulaski
- NRI-LOW 64
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-ABOVE +27%
Nearest declaration peer: Pulaski, IL (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Montana state profile
Lincoln County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Lincoln County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Franklin (city) · near 14
Franklin (city) · near
14 declarations
- Harris · near 14
Harris · near
14 declarations
- Lincoln · this county 14
Lincoln · this county
14 declarations
- Pulaski · near 14
Pulaski · near
14 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Lincoln County carries 14 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2596 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Lincoln County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Lincoln County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Lincoln County
14 20th percentile higher than 20% 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
Lincoln County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Lincoln County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $7.1M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Wildfire 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.
What does Lincoln County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 64.3/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $15.6M in annualized losses), and a Very High social-vulnerability profile combined with Very Low community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Wildfire carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 147 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 39 claims and $447.5K 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. Lincoln County's 14 federal records stand 27% above the Montana county mean of 11.0. 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.
57 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Lincoln County, MT · 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
10/30
14 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
16/25
14 declarations (1.3x state county average of 11)
Major Disaster Share High
13/25
7 of 14 declarations are major disasters (50%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Lincoln County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Lincoln 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
50%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
64
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Lincoln 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 | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 147 years |
| Avalanche | Relatively High | roughly once every 8 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.4 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 36 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.5 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 182 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 30 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 2.1 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 20 times per year |
| Drought | Very Low | 29 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 28 years |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 6 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 4
Flood 3
Biological 2
Severe Storm 2
Straight-Line Winds 1
Hurricane 1
Drought 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Lincoln County's record, 29% 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).
Major Disaster - 7 50.0%
of all 14 declarations
Emergency - 4 28.6%
of all 14 declarations
Fire Management - 3 21.4%
of all 14 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 3 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 2 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 14 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 14 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4901 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2026-04-07 |
| 4902 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Straight-Line Winds | 2026-04-07 |
| 3630 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2025-12-19 |
| 4508 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-31 |
| 3476 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 5211 | MOOSE PEAK FIRE | FM | Fire | 2017-09-10 |
| 5209 | WEST FORK FIRE | FM | Fire | 2017-09-09 |
| 3253 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1340 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2000-08-30 |
| 2320 | MT - NORTHWESTERN ZONE 1 FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2000-08-14 |
| 1183 | SEVERE STORMS,ICE JAMS, SNOW MELT, FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-07-25 |
| 1105 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND ICE JAMS | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-02-23 |
| 3050 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-08-22 |
| 417 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING & LANDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 1974-01-29 |
Storm Events in Montana
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Lincoln County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 3,735 | 1 | 2 | $5.3M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 2,396 | 5 | 24 | $15.1M |
| Hail | 2,015 | 0 | 0 | $4.1M |
| Winter Storm | 1,502 | 13 | 18 | $11.2M |
| Heavy Snow | 796 | 5 | 3 | $143.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
39
Total Paid
$447.5K
Avg Per Claim
$11.5K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 64.3/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$15.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Avalanche Relatively High
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively High
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Earthquake Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Drought Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Tornado 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: 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 Lincoln County the two measures on this page point the same way: Wildfire is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Moderate), 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
Lincoln County's closest FEMA peer: Transylvania County, NC
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Lincoln County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Lincoln County: NRI composite 64.3 (Relatively Low).
Similar Major-disaster share
Lincoln County: 7 of 14 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Lincoln County shows 14 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
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 Lincoln County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Lincoln 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: 64.3 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 14. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 14 FEMA declarations, Lincoln 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 Lincoln County?
The most common disaster type in Lincoln County is Fire, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (3), Biological (2), Severe Storm (2).
How does Lincoln County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Montana average?
FEMA lists 14 declaration records for Lincoln County. That is 27% above the Montana county mean of 11.0. Its count is also 32% 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 Lincoln County received?
Lincoln County has received 7 major disaster declarations, representing 50% of all 14 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Lincoln County filed?
Lincoln County has 39 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $447.5K in payments, with an average of $11.5K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Lincoln County?
No. In Lincoln County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $7.1M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Lincoln County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Lincoln County was 2026, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1974 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Lincoln County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Lincoln County, Montana has an overall risk score of 64.3 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very High; on community resilience, Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $15.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Lincoln County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Lincoln County is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Avalanche (Relatively High) and Landslide (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 147 years. 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Lincoln County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Montana profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events