FEMA Records
22
Above median
Missouri · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Macon County, MO
22 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 22
- FEMA declarations
- 16
- Major disasters
- 37
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Macon 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 11% below the Missouri county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 37%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 37%
- 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
- 2
- 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 Macon County compare?
Macon County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
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 · 2026-08-03
Macon County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Missouri county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Macon County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $5.6M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Landslide carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively 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 Macon County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 36.8/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $10.6M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively Moderate) and community resilience (Relatively Moderate) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Landslide, only reaches Relatively 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 2 years here.
Declaration frequency
Nationally, Macon County's 22 FEMA records form a high-volume history; within Missouri, however, the count is 11% below the county mean. 16 entries carry the Major Disaster classification. The largest incident group is Severe Storm, appearing 12 times. The full 47-year record averages 0.5 declarations annually. A DR label alone does not say whether Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, or both followed.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 2 claims and $8.3K 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.
Start with the state benchmark: a Missouri county averages 24.6 federal declaration records, while Macon County has 22. The gap is 11% 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.
63 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Macon County, MO · 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
11/25
22 declarations (0.9x state county average of 25)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
16 of 22 declarations are major disasters (73%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Macon County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Missouri Avg
-11%
State avg: 24.6
vs. National Avg
+6%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.5
Over 47 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Macon 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
73%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
37
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Macon 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 47 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 8.8 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 3.4 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 8 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 673 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,203 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 1 time per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 3.1 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 3.9 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 11 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 12
Severe Ice Storm 3
Biological 2
Flood 2
Hurricane 1
Drought 1
Tornado 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Macon County's record, 55% 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 - 16 72.7%
of all 22 declarations
Emergency - 6 27.3%
of all 22 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 2 | |
| 1999 | 2 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1973 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4490 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-26 |
| 3482 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4451 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2019-07-09 |
| 4238 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-08-07 |
| 4200 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2014-10-31 |
| 1961 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-03-23 |
| 3317 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Storm | 2011-02-03 |
| 3303 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2009-01-30 |
| 1773 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-06-25 |
| 3281 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2007-12-12 |
| 3232 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1524 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-06-11 |
| 1412 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-05-06 |
| 1403 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2002-02-06 |
| 1270 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-04-20 |
| 1253 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-10-14 |
| 1054 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, HAIL, FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-06-02 |
| 995 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-09 |
| 3017 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1976-09-24 |
| 466 | TORNADOES, HIGH WINDS & HAIL | DR | Tornado | 1975-05-03 |
Show 2 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 407 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-11-01 |
| 372 | HEAVY RAINS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1973-04-19 |
Storm Events in Missouri
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Macon County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 6,391 | 30 | 52 | $63.4M |
| Hail | 4,411 | 0 | 1 | $86.1M |
| Flash Flood | 2,399 | 47 | 14 | $406.6M |
| Flood | 1,810 | 25 | 7 | $304.6M |
| Drought | 1,033 | 0 | 350 | $53.6M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
2
Total Paid
$8.3K
Avg Per Claim
$4.1K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 36.8/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$10.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Landslide Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Hurricane 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: Landslide
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 Macon County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Landslide carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Low), 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
Macon County's closest FEMA peer: Dauphin County, PA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Macon County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Macon County shows 22 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Macon County: 16 of 22 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Macon County: NRI composite 36.8 (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 Macon County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 22 FEMA declarations, Macon 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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Macon County?
The most common disaster type in Macon County is Severe Storm, with 12 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Ice Storm (3), Biological (2), Flood (2).
How does Macon County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Missouri average?
The typical Missouri county has 24.6 FEMA declaration records; Macon County has 22, or 11% 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 Macon County received?
Macon County has received 16 major disaster declarations, representing 73% of all 22 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Macon County filed?
Macon County has 2 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $8.3K in payments, with an average of $4.1K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Macon County?
No. In Macon County, Landslide has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $5.6M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Macon County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Macon County was 1999, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Macon County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Macon County, Missouri has an overall risk score of 36.8 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Moderate and community resilience is Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $10.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Macon County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Macon County is Landslide (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Lightning (Relatively Moderate) and Tornado (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts landslide here at roughly once every 2 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.
What this means for Macon County
Against a Missouri county mean of 25 declarations, Macon County, MO records 22, or 11% fewer. PlainHazard classifies that historical total as high activity.
- Major Disaster is the largest group (16 of 22) in a declaration history that remains below its state benchmark; frequency here is not a forecast. Missouri overview
- Nationally the county exceeds 57% of recorded county totals, but its own Missouri benchmark is higher. The ranking keeps those two contexts separate. Most-disaster rankings
- A short NFIP claims file cannot establish low flood exposure; the data guide explains the limits of each federal measure. Disaster-data guide
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.
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.