FEMA Records
22
Above median
Kentucky · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Lyon County, KY
22 FEMA disaster declarations (1996-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 22
- FEMA declarations
- 15
- Major disasters
- 29
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Lyon County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 22 declarations, more than 57% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 22% below the Kentucky county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 29%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 29%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 22
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 11
- severe storm declarations, the most common hazard here
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 21143 · Lyon County 22 declarations · rank 1327/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 22
- MAJOR-MID 68%
- RANK-LOWER #1,327
- PHOTO-FINISH Hardy
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -22%
Nearest declaration peer: Hardy, WV (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Kentucky state profile
Lyon County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Lyon County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Hardy · near 22
Hardy · near
22 declarations
- Lyon · this county 22
Lyon · this county
22 declarations
- Prairie · near 22
Prairie · near
22 declarations
- St. Francis · near 22
St. Francis · near
22 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Lyon County carries 22 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1327 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Lyon County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Lyon County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Lyon County
22 Top 43% higher than 57% 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
Lyon County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Lyon County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $1.6M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Ice Storm 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 Lyon County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 28.9/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $7.0M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Relatively High social-vulnerability score and Relatively Low community-resilience score. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Ice Storm stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 1.6 times per year here, based on 105 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
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 Kentucky county averages 28.1 federal declaration records, while Lyon County has 22. The gap is 22% 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.
61 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Lyon County, KY · 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) High
16/30
22 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.1x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25
22 declarations (0.8x state county average of 28)
Major Disaster Share High
17/25
15 of 22 declarations are major disasters (68%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Lyon County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Lyon 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
68%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
29
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Lyon 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | an average of 1.6 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 4.3 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 136 years |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 6.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 6.9 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 9.1 modeled event-days per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 2.9 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 55 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | an average of 1 time per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 161 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 13,129 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 11
Snowstorm 3
Tornado 2
Biological 2
Severe Ice Storm 2
Winter Storm 1
Hurricane 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Lyon County's record, 50% 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 68.2%
of all 22 declarations
Emergency - 7 31.8%
of all 22 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2025 | 4 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 3 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 22 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 22 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3633 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4875 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2025-05-23 |
| 4864 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2025-04-24 |
| 3626 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | EM | Severe Storm | 2025-04-03 |
| 3624 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, AND LANDSLIDES | EM | Severe Storm | 2025-02-16 |
| 4804 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-07-23 |
| 4702 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-04-10 |
| 4630 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 2021-12-12 |
| 3575 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | EM | Tornado | 2021-12-11 |
| 4497 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-28 |
| 3469 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4278 | SEVERE STORM, TORNADOES, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-08-26 |
| 4216 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, SNOWSTORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Snowstorm | 2015-04-30 |
| 1976 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-05-04 |
| 1912 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, MUDSLIDES, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-05-11 |
| 1818 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2009-02-05 |
| 3302 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2009-01-28 |
| 1802 | SEVERE WIND STORM ASSOCIATED WITH TROPICAL DEPRESSION IKE | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-10-09 |
| 3231 | HURRICANE KATRINA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1578 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND RECORD SNOW | DR | Snowstorm | 2005-02-08 |
Show 2 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1163 | SEVERE STORM, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-03-04 |
| 1089 | BLIZZARD OF 96 | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-13 |
Storm Events in Kentucky
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Lyon County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 6,702 | 9 | 56 | $55.2M |
| Flash Flood | 1,757 | 65 | 16 | $42.6M |
| Flood | 1,646 | 31 | 6 | $37.1M |
| Hail | 1,534 | 1 | 0 | $4.7M |
| Winter Weather | 1,079 | 14 | 54 | $655.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 28.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$7.0M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Ice Storm Relatively High
Strong Wind Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Hail Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Wildfire 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: Ice Storm
Ice storms load power lines and tree limbs with accumulating freezing rain until they fail. The characteristic cost is infrastructure and multi-day power loss across a wide area rather than structural damage to buildings, which is why their consequences often outlast the weather that caused them.
Worth noting for Lyon County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Ice Storm 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
Lyon County's closest FEMA peer: Tuolumne County, CA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Lyon County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Lyon County shows 22 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Lyon County: 15 of 22 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Lyon County: NRI composite 28.9 (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 Lyon County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Lyon 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: 28.9 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 22. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 22 FEMA declarations, Lyon 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 Lyon County?
The most common disaster type in Lyon County is Severe Storm, with 11 declarations. Other disaster types include Snowstorm (3), Tornado (2), Biological (2).
How does Lyon County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Kentucky average?
The typical Kentucky county has 28.1 FEMA declaration records; Lyon County has 22, or 22% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 6% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Lyon County received?
Lyon County has received 15 major disaster declarations, representing 68% of all 22 disaster declarations.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Lyon County?
No. In Lyon County, Ice Storm has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $1.6M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Lyon County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Lyon County was 2025, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1996 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Lyon County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Lyon County, Kentucky has an overall risk score of 28.9 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively High and community resilience is Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $7.0M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Lyon County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Lyon County as of the latest release is Ice Storm (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Strong Wind (Relatively High) and Earthquake (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts ice storm here at an average of 1.6 times per year, drawn from 105 historical events on record. These scores are based on FEMA's analysis of historical event frequency, 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.
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 Lyon County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Kentucky profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events