FEMA Records
21
Above median
Indiana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Madison County, IN
21 FEMA disaster declarations (1977-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 21
- FEMA declarations
- 14
- Major disasters
- 77
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Madison County. Its 21 FEMA declarations are 23% above the Indiana county mean and exceed the count for 52% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 23%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 23%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 21
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 258
- 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 18095 · Madison County 21 declarations · rank 1536/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 21
- MAJOR-MID 67%
- RANK-LOWER #1,536
- PHOTO-FINISH Montgomery
- NRI-LOW 77
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-ABOVE +23%
Nearest declaration peer: Montgomery, IN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Indiana state profile
Madison County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Madison County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Atascosa · near 21
Atascosa · near
21 declarations
- Madison · this county 21
Madison · this county
21 declarations
- Mason · near 21
Mason · near
21 declarations
- Montgomery · near 21
Montgomery · near
21 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Madison County carries 21 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1536 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Madison County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Madison County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Madison County
21 Top 48% higher than 52% 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
Madison County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Madison County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $20.5M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Strong Wind 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 Madison County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 258 paid claims, totaling $3.2M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $12.5K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Madison County's 21 federal records stand 23% above the Indiana county mean of 17.1. 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 77.3/100 (Relatively Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $34.8M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Moderate and community resilience Relatively High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Strong Wind stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 4.9 times per year here, based on 186 historical events on record.
65 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Madison County, IN · 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
15/30
21 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
15/25
21 declarations (1.2x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share High
17/25
14 of 21 declarations are major disasters (67%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Madison County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Madison 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
67%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
77
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Madison 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 4.9 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.4 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.7 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 562 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.4 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 10 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 4.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 1.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 45 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 12 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 87 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 54,667 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 9
Snowstorm 4
Flood 3
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Hurricane 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Madison County's record, 43% 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 - 14 66.7%
of all 21 declarations
Emergency - 7 33.3%
of all 21 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 2 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 2 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1977 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 21 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 21 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3641 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4882 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2025-07-22 |
| 4515 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-03 |
| 3456 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4173 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2014-04-22 |
| 1766 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-06-08 |
| 3274 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2007-03-12 |
| 3238 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1573 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2005-01-21 |
| 3197 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2005-01-11 |
| 1520 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-06-03 |
| 1487 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-09-05 |
| 1476 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-07-11 |
| 1433 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-09-25 |
| 3135 | IN-WINTER STORM 12/23/98 | EM | Snowstorm | 1999-01-15 |
| 1234 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-07-22 |
| 1109 | BLIZZARD OF 96 | DR | Flood | 1996-04-02 |
| 962 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1992-09-18 |
| 899 | SEVERE ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 1991-03-29 |
| 891 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1991-01-05 |
Show 1 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3028 | SNOWSTORMS | EM | Snowstorm | 1977-02-02 |
Storm Events in Indiana
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Madison County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,886 | 16 | 73 | $57.6M |
| Hail | 1,643 | 0 | 0 | $1.7M |
| Winter Weather | 1,166 | 32 | 80 | $2.5M |
| Flood | 850 | 13 | 3 | $16.0M |
| Flash Flood | 648 | 14 | 5 | $97.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
258
Total Paid
$3.2M
Avg Per Claim
$12.5K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 77.3/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$34.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Strong Wind Relatively High
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Landslide 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: Strong Wind
Strong Wind covers damaging non-thunderstorm, non-tornadic wind, the kind produced by steep pressure gradients and downslope events. It is a broad, frequent, low-drama hazard: roofs, signage, power lines and high-profile vehicles, spread across a wide area rather than concentrated on a path.
For Madison County the two measures on this page point the same way: Strong Wind is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively High), and Severe Storm 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
Madison County's closest FEMA peer: Somerset County, PA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Madison County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Madison County shows 21 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Madison County: 14 of 21 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Madison County: NRI composite 77.3 (Relatively 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 Madison County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Madison 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: 77.3 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 21. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Madison County's NFIP claims file (258 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 Madison County?
The most common disaster type in Madison County is Severe Storm, with 9 declarations. Other disaster types include Snowstorm (4), Flood (3), Biological (2).
How does Madison County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Indiana average?
FEMA lists 21 declaration records for Madison County. That is 23% above the Indiana county mean of 17.1. Its count is also 1% above 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 Madison County received?
Madison County has received 14 major disaster declarations, representing 67% of all 21 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Madison County filed?
Madison County has 258 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $3.2M in payments, with an average of $12.5K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Madison County?
No. In Madison County, Strong Wind has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $20.5M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Madison County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Madison County was 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1977 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Madison County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Madison County, Indiana has an overall risk score of 77.3 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Moderate; on community resilience, Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $34.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Madison County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Madison County as of the latest release is Strong Wind (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Tornado (Relatively Moderate) and Hail (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts strong wind here at an average of 4.9 times per year, drawn from 186 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.
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 Madison County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Indiana profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events