FEMA Records
32
Very high volume
North Dakota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
McHenry County, ND
32 FEMA disaster declarations (1966-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 32
- FEMA declarations
- 29
- Major disasters
- 12
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for McHenry County. Its 32 FEMA declarations are 24% above the North Dakota county mean and exceed the count for 89% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 12%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 12%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 32
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 61
- 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 McHenry County compare?
McHenry County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
32 Top 11% higher than 89% 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
McHenry County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the North Dakota county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for McHenry County is led by Cold Wave (about $2.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Winter Weather 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 McHenry County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 61 paid claims, totaling $647.4K. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $10.6K 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. McHenry County's 32 federal records stand 24% above the North Dakota county mean of 25.9. 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.
Declaration frequency
The FEMA register is busy by both local and national comparisons. It contains 32 entries for McHenry County, including 29 Major Disaster records, 24% above the North Dakota county mean. Across the 57-year span, that works out to 0.6 declarations a year. Flood leads the file with 16 entries. Declaration type records the federal action taken, not every assistance program approved.
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's National Risk Index places this county in the low end of the national distribution, composite score 11.7/100 (Very Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $7.3M in annualized losses). Two modifiers shape how that exposure becomes real-world harm here: social vulnerability (Very Low) and community resilience (Relatively Moderate). Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Winter Weather stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 21 times per year here, based on 404 historical events on record.
74 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
McHenry County, ND · 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) Very High
23/30
32 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.5x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
15/25
32 declarations (1.2x state county average of 26)
Major Disaster Share Very High
23/25
29 of 32 declarations are major disasters (91%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in McHenry County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. North Dakota Avg
+24%
State avg: 25.9
vs. National Avg
+54%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.6
Over 57 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - McHenry 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
91%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
12
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike McHenry 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 21 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 843 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 22 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 2 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 19 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 11,765 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.9 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 27 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 16
Severe Storm 11
Biological 2
Snowstorm 2
Coastal Storm 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on McHenry County's record, 50% of its declarations. Federal flood declarations cover two mechanisms that behave very differently: riverine flooding, which builds over days as a watershed drains and is usually forecast well in advance, and flash flooding, which can arrive in under an hour from rainfall that fell somewhere upstream.
Flood is also the one hazard class where a second federal dataset exists for the same events. The National Flood Insurance Program records what was actually paid on insured losses, so it measures a narrower thing than the declaration count: uninsured damage, and flooding outside mapped special flood hazard areas, never enters it. Reading the two together is more informative than either alone.
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 - 29 90.6%
of all 32 declarations
Emergency - 3 9.4%
of all 32 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 2 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 2 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
Show 11 earlier declaration years
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 2 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1970 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
| 1966 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 32 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 32 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4717 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2023-07-05 |
| 4660 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-07-13 |
| 4509 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-01 |
| 3477 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4323 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2017-07-12 |
| 4190 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2014-08-19 |
| 4128 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2013-07-12 |
| 4118 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2013-05-29 |
| 1981 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2011-05-10 |
| 1907 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2010-04-30 |
| 1901 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-04-21 |
| 1829 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-03-24 |
| 1713 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-07-17 |
| 1616 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND RECORD AND/OR NEAR RECORD SNOW | DR | Snowstorm | 2005-11-21 |
| 3247 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-13 |
| 1597 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND GROUND SATURATION | DR | Severe Storm | 2005-07-22 |
| 1515 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND GROUND SATURATION | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-05-05 |
| 3196 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2004-04-02 |
| 1376 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, & GROUND SATURATION | DR | Flood | 2001-05-28 |
| 1334 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING AND GROUND SATURATION | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-06-27 |
Show 12 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1279 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, SNOW, ICE, GROUND SATURATION, LANSLIDES, MUDSLIDES, AND TOR | DR | Flood | 1999-06-08 |
| 1174 | SEVERE FLOODING,SEVERE WINTER STORMS, SNOWMELT, SPRING RAINS | DR | Flood | 1997-04-07 |
| 1157 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND BLIZZARD CONDITIONS | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-12 |
| 1118 | SEVERE STORMS,FLOODING, & ICE JAMS | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-06-05 |
| 1050 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND GROUND SATURATION | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-05-16 |
| 581 | SEVERE STORMS, SNOWMELT & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1979-04-26 |
| 501 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1976-04-16 |
| 469 | FLOODING FROM RAINS & SNOWMELT | DR | Flood | 1975-05-24 |
| 434 | HEAVY RAINS, SNOWMELT & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1974-05-14 |
| 287 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1970-06-05 |
| 256 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-04-18 |
| 220 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1966-07-09 |
Storm Events in North Dakota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to McHenry County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 2,705 | 0 | 2 | $116.1M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 2,459 | 2 | 10 | $67.0M |
| High Wind | 1,184 | 1 | 1 | $2.9M |
| Heavy Snow | 925 | 0 | 3 | $650.0K |
| Blizzard | 905 | 2 | 2 | $60.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
61
Total Paid
$647.4K
Avg Per Claim
$10.6K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 11.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$7.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Winter Weather Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Hail Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Drought Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Lightning 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: Winter Weather
Winter Weather in the model means the accumulation of snow and cold that disrupts rather than destroys: road closures, roof loads, burst pipes and lost heating. Its costs land heavily on transport and on households least able to absorb an interruption.
Worth noting for McHenry County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Winter Weather carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively High), while the county's declaration history is led by Flood. 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
McHenry County's closest FEMA peer: Mason County, WA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for McHenry County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
McHenry County shows 32 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
McHenry County: 29 of 32 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
McHenry County: NRI composite 11.7 (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 McHenry County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
McHenry County's NFIP claims file (61 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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in McHenry County?
The most common disaster type in McHenry County is Flood, with 16 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (11), Biological (2), Snowstorm (2).
How does McHenry County's FEMA declaration record compare with the North Dakota average?
FEMA lists 32 declaration records for McHenry County. That is 24% above the North Dakota county mean of 25.9. Its count is also 54% 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 McHenry County received?
McHenry County has received 29 major disaster declarations, representing 91% of all 32 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has McHenry County filed?
McHenry County has 61 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $647.4K in payments, with an average of $10.6K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in McHenry County?
No. In McHenry County, Winter Weather has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Cold Wave leads Expected Annual Loss at about $2.3M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in McHenry County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in McHenry County was 1997, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1966 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for McHenry County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, McHenry County, North Dakota has an overall risk score of 11.7 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $7.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to McHenry County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for McHenry County as of the latest release is Winter Weather (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Relatively Low) and Ice Storm (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts winter weather here at an average of 21 times per year, drawn from 404 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.
What this means for McHenry County
McHenry County, ND has 32 federal declaration records, 24% more than the North Dakota county mean of 26; its history sits in PlainHazard's high activity band.
- Within this above-state-average declaration file, major disaster leads with 29 of 32 records; the category describes past federal action, not the next likely hazard. North Dakota overview
- The state benchmark and national rank point the same way: this count tops the North Dakota mean and the totals for 89% of 3,266 U.S. counties. Most-disaster rankings
- Use the data guide to separate this mid-volume insurance-claims file from declaration counts and modeled NRI risk. Disaster-data guide
An above-average declaration count records past federal responses; it does not predict the next event. Current warnings come from the National Weather Service and local emergency officials.
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.