FEMA Records
8
Low volume
Colorado · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Mineral County, CO
8 FEMA disaster declarations (1970-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 8
- FEMA declarations
- 4
- Major disasters
- 5
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Start with the local benchmark for Mineral County: 8 FEMA declaration records are 22% below the Colorado county mean, even though the count is higher than 6% of counties in the national registry. On FEMA's distinct National Risk Index model, which combines expected loss with vulnerability and resilience, the county ranks safer than 5%.
- Safer than 5%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 8
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 2
- biological declarations, the most common hazard here
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 08079 · Mineral County 8 declarations · rank 3069/3,266
DECL-LIGHT · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-MODERATE · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-LIGHT 8
- MAJOR-MID 50%
- RANK-LOWER #3,069
- PHOTO-FINISH Marion
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-MODERATE Moderate
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -22%
Nearest declaration peer: Marion, IL (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Colorado state profile
Mineral County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Mineral County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Kane · near 8
Kane · near
8 declarations
- Marion · near 8
Marion · near
8 declarations
- Mesa · near 8
Mesa · near
8 declarations
- Mineral · this county 8
Mineral · this county
8 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Mineral County carries 8 FEMA declaration records, ranked 3069 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Mineral County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Mineral County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Mineral County
8 6th percentile higher than 6% 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
Mineral County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Mineral County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's National Risk Index places this county in the low end of the national distribution, composite score 5.4/100 (Very Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $4.6M 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, Avalanche stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 8 years here, based on 4 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 Colorado county averages 10.2 federal declaration records, while Mineral County has 8. 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.
42 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Mineral County, CO · 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) Low
6/30
8 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.4x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25
8 declarations (0.8x state county average of 10)
Major Disaster Share High
13/25
4 of 8 declarations are major disasters (50%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Mineral County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Mineral 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
50%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
5
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Mineral 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Avalanche | Relatively High | roughly once every 8 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 62 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 913 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,088 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 14 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 32 times per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 28 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 14 years |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Drought | No Rating | 65 modeled event-days per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Biological 2
Fire 2
Flood 2
Coastal Storm 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Mineral County's record, 25% 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 - 4 50.0%
of all 8 declarations
Emergency - 3 37.5%
of all 8 declarations
Fire Management - 1 12.5%
of all 8 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
| 1970 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 8 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 8 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4498 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-28 |
| 3436 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 5031 | WEST FORK FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2013-06-21 |
| 3224 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-05 |
| 1421 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2002-06-19 |
| 3025 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-01-29 |
| 396 | FLOODING & LANDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 1973-07-06 |
| 293 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1970-09-22 |
Storm Events in Colorado
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Mineral County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 4,913 | 0 | 100 | $2.9B |
| Winter Weather | 2,620 | 3 | 23 | $22.5K |
| High Wind | 1,992 | 5 | 6 | $20.9M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 1,741 | 2 | 11 | $5.4M |
| Winter Storm | 1,497 | 0 | 0 | $848.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 5.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$4.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Avalanche Relatively High
Landslide Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Hail Very Low
Drought No Rating
Heat 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: Avalanche
Avalanche is the most geographically restricted hazard in the model, limited to steep terrain holding seasonal snow. Its exposure concentrates on mountain roads, rail corridors and backcountry recreation rather than on the built environment generally.
Worth noting for Mineral County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Avalanche 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
Mineral County's closest FEMA peer: Price County, WI
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Mineral County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Mineral County shows 8 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Mineral County: 4 of 8 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Mineral County: NRI composite 5.4 (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 Mineral County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Mineral 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: 5.4 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 8. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
FEMA's National Risk Index flags Avalanche as the top modeled exposure here (Relatively High); the guide explains how that model differs from declaration counts.
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 Mineral County?
The most common disaster type in Mineral County is Flood, with 2 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Fire (2), Coastal Storm (1).
How does Mineral County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Colorado average?
The typical Colorado county has 10.2 FEMA declaration records; Mineral County has 8, or 22% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 61% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Mineral County received?
Mineral County has received 4 major disaster declarations, representing 50% of all 8 disaster declarations.
What was the worst year for disasters in Mineral County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Mineral County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1970 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Mineral County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Mineral County, Colorado has an overall risk score of 5.4 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $4.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Mineral County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Mineral County as of the latest release is Avalanche (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Landslide (Relatively Low) and Lightning (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts avalanche here at roughly once every 8 years, drawn from 4 historical events on record. 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.
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 Mineral County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Colorado profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events