FEMA Records
14
Low volume
California · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Mono County, CA
14 FEMA disaster declarations (1969-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 14
- FEMA declarations
- 10
- Major disasters
- 47
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Mono County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 14 declarations, more than 20% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 51% below the California county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 47%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 47%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 14
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 46
- 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 06051 · Mono County 14 declarations · rank 2564/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-LOW
- DECL-MID 14
- MAJOR-MID 71%
- RANK-LOWER #2,564
- PHOTO-FINISH Pulaski
- NRI-LOW 47
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-LOW -51%
Nearest declaration peer: Pulaski, IL (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · California state profile
Mono County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Mono County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Franklin (city) · near 14
Franklin (city) · near
14 declarations
- Harris · near 14
Harris · near
14 declarations
- Mono · this county 14
Mono · this county
14 declarations
- Pulaski · near 14
Pulaski · near
14 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Mono County carries 14 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2564 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Mono County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Mono County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Mono County
14 20th percentile higher than 20% 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
Mono County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Mono County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $6.9M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Wildfire carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). 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 Mono County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 46.5/100 for this county (Relatively Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Relatively Low (roughly $16.7M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively Low) and community resilience (Relatively High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Wildfire carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 249 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 46 claims and $404.7K 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 California county averages 28.5 federal declaration records, while Mono County has 14. The gap is 51% 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.
44 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Mono 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) Moderate
10/30
14 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density Low
6/25
14 declarations (0.5x state county average of 29)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
10 of 14 declarations are major disasters (71%)
Hazard Diversity High
10/20
4 different disaster types declared in Mono County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Mono 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
71%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
47
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Mono 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 249 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 11 years |
| Volcanic Activity | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1,250 years |
| Avalanche | Relatively High | roughly once every 5 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 25 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 116 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | an average of 14 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 23 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 26 years |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 17 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 26 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 2,245,615 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 7
Severe Storm 4
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Mono 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 - 10 71.4%
of all 14 declarations
Emergency - 4 28.6%
of all 14 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 3 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 3 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 14 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 14 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 |
| 3591 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | EM | Flood | 2023-01-09 |
| 4482 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-22 |
| 3428 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4308 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2017-04-01 |
| 4305 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2017-03-16 |
| 4301 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2017-02-14 |
| 3248 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 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 |
| 758 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-02-21 |
| 547 | COASTAL STORMS, MUDSLIDES & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1978-02-15 |
| 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 Mono 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
46
Total Paid
$404.7K
Avg Per Claim
$8.8K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 46.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$16.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Volcanic Activity Relatively Low
Avalanche Relatively High
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Hail Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Cold Wave 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: Wildfire
Wildfire risk in the model reflects fuel, terrain, weather and how much development sits in the wildland-urban interface. It is one of the few hazards where the exposure is materially changed by land management and building choices, not only by where the county happens to be.
Worth noting for Mono County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Wildfire carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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
Mono County's closest FEMA peer: Jefferson County, WI
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Mono County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Mono County shows 14 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Mono County: 10 of 14 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Mono County: NRI composite 46.5 (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 Mono County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Mono 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: 46.5 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 14. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 14 FEMA declarations, Mono 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).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Mono County?
The most common disaster type in Mono County is Flood, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (4), Biological (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Mono County's FEMA declaration record compare with the California average?
The typical California county has 28.5 FEMA declaration records; Mono County has 14, or 51% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 32% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Mono County received?
Mono County has received 10 major disaster declarations, representing 71% of all 14 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Mono County filed?
Mono County has 46 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $404.7K in payments, with an average of $8.8K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Mono County?
No. In Mono County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $6.9M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Mono County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Mono County was 2017, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1969 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Mono County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Mono County, California has an overall risk score of 46.5 out of 100 (Relatively Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $16.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Mono County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Mono County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Earthquake (Relatively Low) and Volcanic Activity (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 249 years. 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 Mono County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · California profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events