FEMA Records
25
High volume
California · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Madera County, CA
25 FEMA disaster declarations (1969-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively High. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 25
- FEMA declarations
- 14
- Major disasters
- 96
- NRI risk · Relatively High
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Madera County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 25 declarations, more than 71% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 12% below the California county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 4%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 4%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively High
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 25
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 63
- 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 06039 · Madera County 25 declarations · rank 873/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-HIGH · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 25
- MAJOR-MID 56%
- RANK-LOWER #873
- PHOTO-FINISH Jefferson
- NRI-HIGH 96
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-BELOW -12%
Nearest declaration peer: Jefferson, AR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · California state profile
Madera County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Madera County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Benton · near 25
Benton · near
25 declarations
- Jefferson · near 25
Jefferson · near
25 declarations
- Lafayette · near 25
Lafayette · near
25 declarations
- Madera · this county 25
Madera · this county
25 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Madera County carries 25 FEMA declaration records, ranked 873 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Madera County ranks in the national declaration registry
Madera County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Madera County
25 Top 29% higher than 71% 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
Madera County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Madera County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 63 paid claims, totaling $698.7K. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $11.1K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a California county averages 28.5 federal declaration records, while Madera County has 25. The gap is 12% 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 96.4/100 (Relatively High). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $161.6M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively High and community resilience Very Low, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Drought stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 85 modeled event-days per year here, based on 2,639 historical events on record.
61 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Madera County, CA · 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
18/30
25 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.2x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
25 declarations (0.9x state county average of 29)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
14 of 25 declarations are major disasters (56%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Madera County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Madera 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
56%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
96
Relatively High
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Madera 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drought | Very High | 85 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively High | roughly once every 145 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | an average of 29 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively High | 6.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 14 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively High | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 6 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 16 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 12 times per year |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 1,667 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | roughly once every 20 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 7
Flood 6
Severe Storm 5
Freezing 3
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Drought 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Madera County's record, 28% 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 - 14 56.0%
of all 25 declarations
Fire Management - 6 24.0%
of all 25 declarations
Emergency - 5 20.0%
of all 25 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 4 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 2 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1969 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 25 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 25 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4699 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-04-03 |
| 3592 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | EM | Flood | 2023-03-10 |
| 4683 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2023-01-14 |
| 3591 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | EM | Flood | 2023-01-09 |
| 4569 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2020-10-16 |
| 5348 | CREEK FIRE | FM | Fire | 2020-09-06 |
| 4482 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-22 |
| 3428 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 5204 | MISSION FIRE | FM | Fire | 2017-09-04 |
| 5202 | RAILROAD FIRE | FM | Fire | 2017-09-02 |
| 5078 | COURTNEY FIRE | FM | Fire | 2014-09-14 |
| 5074 | JUNCTION FIRE | FM | Fire | 2014-08-19 |
| 1689 | SEVERE FREEZE | DR | Freezing | 2007-03-13 |
| 1646 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-06-05 |
| 3248 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 2571 | CA-QUARTZ FIRE-7-25-2005 | FM | Fire | 2005-07-25 |
| 1267 | CA-CITRUS CROP DAMAGE 2/2/99 | DR | Freezing | 1999-02-09 |
| 1155 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, MUD AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-04 |
| 1046 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING LANDSLIDES, MUD FLOW | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-03-12 |
| 1044 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, MUD FLOWS | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-01-10 |
Show 5 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 979 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, MUD & LAND SLIDES, & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-02-03 |
| 894 | SEVERE FREEZE | DR | Freezing | 1991-02-11 |
| 758 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-02-21 |
| 3023 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-01-20 |
| 253 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-01-26 |
Storm Events in California
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Madera County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 4,070 | 13 | 27 | $228.2M |
| Flood | 3,132 | 26 | 25 | $985.1M |
| Heavy Snow | 1,814 | 6 | 0 | $1.6M |
| Dense Fog | 1,605 | 52 | 148 | $2.8M |
| Drought | 1,421 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
63
Total Paid
$698.7K
Avg Per Claim
$11.1K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively High
Score: 96.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$161.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Very High
Wildfire Relatively High
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively High
Hail Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Volcanic Activity Very Low
Avalanche Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Tornado Very Low
Cold Wave 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: Drought
Drought is the slowest of the modeled hazards and the least visible: it does its damage to agriculture, water supply and soil over seasons rather than hours, so it rarely produces the kind of single-day damage that drives a disaster declaration. FEMA scores it in event-days per year rather than discrete events for exactly that reason.
Worth noting for Madera County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Very High), while the county's declaration history is led by Fire. 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
Madera County's closest FEMA peer: Toa Alta Municipio, PR
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Madera County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Madera County shows 25 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Madera County: 14 of 25 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Madera County: NRI composite 96.4 (Relatively High).
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 Madera County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Madera 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: 96.4 (Relatively High).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 25. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Madera County's NFIP claims file (63 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).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Madera County?
The most common disaster type in Madera County is Fire, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (6), Severe Storm (5), Freezing (3).
How does Madera County's FEMA declaration record compare with the California average?
The typical California county has 28.5 FEMA declaration records; Madera County has 25, or 12% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 21% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Madera County received?
Madera County has received 14 major disaster declarations, representing 56% of all 25 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Madera County filed?
Madera County has 63 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $698.7K in payments, with an average of $11.1K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Madera County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Madera County was 2023, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1969 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Madera County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Madera County, California has an overall risk score of 96.4 out of 100 (Relatively High). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively High; on community resilience, Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $161.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Madera County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Madera County as of the latest release is Drought (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Relatively High) and Landslide (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 85 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 2,639 historical events on record. 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 Madera County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · California profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events