FEMA Records
20
Above median
Illinois · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Monroe County, IL
20 FEMA disaster declarations (1969-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 20
- FEMA declarations
- 18
- Major disasters
- 42
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Monroe County. Its 20 FEMA declarations are 56% above the Illinois county mean and exceed the count for 46% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 42%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 42%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 20
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 689
- 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 17133 · Monroe County 20 declarations · rank 1726/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-HIGH
- DECL-HEAVY 20
- MAJOR-HEAVY 90%
- RANK-LOWER #1,726
- PHOTO-FINISH Monona
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-HIGH +56%
Nearest declaration peer: Monona, IA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Illinois state profile
Monroe County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Monroe County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Cleveland · near 20
Cleveland · near
20 declarations
- Monona · near 20
Monona · near
20 declarations
- Monroe · this county 20
Monroe · this county
20 declarations
- Tallapoosa · near 20
Tallapoosa · near
20 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Monroe County carries 20 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1726 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Monroe County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Monroe County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Monroe County
20 46th percentile higher than 46% 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
Monroe County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Monroe County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $6.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Heat Wave 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 Monroe County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 689 claims and $22.7M in payments. PlainHazard labels 500 or more claims a heavy registry record; that is a reporting bucket, not an official FEMA risk grade. The average paid claim was $33.0K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Monroe County's 20 federal records stand 56% above the Illinois county mean of 12.9. 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 41.9/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Relatively Low (roughly $22.6M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very Low) and community resilience (Very High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Heat Wave carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 13 modeled event-days per year here, based on 148 historical events on record.
71 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Monroe County, IL · 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
14/30
20 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density Very High
19/25
20 declarations (1.6x state county average of 13)
Major Disaster Share Very High
23/25
18 of 20 declarations are major disasters (90%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Monroe County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Monroe 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
90%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
42
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Monroe 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 13 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 161 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 6 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 5.2 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 1.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 53 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 8.8 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | an average of 1 time per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 64 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 12,092 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 8
Severe Storm 7
Biological 2
Severe Ice Storm 1
Hurricane 1
Tornado 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Monroe County's record, 40% 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 - 18 90.0%
of all 20 declarations
Emergency - 2 10.0%
of all 20 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1985 | 1 | |
| 1983 | 2 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
Show 3 earlier declaration years
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 20 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 20 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4728 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-08-15 |
| 4489 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-26 |
| 3435 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4461 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-09-19 |
| 4116 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2013-05-10 |
| 1771 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-06-24 |
| 1681 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2007-02-09 |
| 3230 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-07 |
| 1416 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 2002-05-21 |
| 1112 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-05-06 |
| 1053 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-05-30 |
| 1025 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-04-26 |
| 997 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-09 |
| 735 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1985-03-29 |
| 684 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1983-06-06 |
| 674 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1982-12-13 |
| 583 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1979-04-30 |
| 438 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1974-06-10 |
| 373 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-04-26 |
| 276 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-08-30 |
Storm Events in Illinois
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Monroe County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 7,218 | 9 | 67 | $46.0M |
| Hail | 3,195 | 0 | 0 | $27.1M |
| Winter Weather | 1,363 | 14 | 49 | $1.8M |
| Flood | 1,221 | 14 | 11 | $84.3M |
| Flash Flood | 1,133 | 11 | 3 | $1.1B |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
689
Total Paid
$22.7M
Avg Per Claim
$33.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 41.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$22.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Landslide Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Ice Storm 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: Heat Wave
Heat Wave is measured in event-days per year rather than discrete events, and it is the hazard whose harm is most consistently undercounted: its toll is health and mortality, concentrated among people without cooling, rather than visible damage to property.
Worth noting for Monroe County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Heat Wave 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
Monroe County's closest FEMA peer: York County, NE
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Monroe County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Monroe County shows 20 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Monroe County: 18 of 20 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Monroe County: NRI composite 41.9 (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 Monroe County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Monroe 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: 41.9 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 20. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Monroe County's NFIP claims file (689 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 Monroe County?
The most common disaster type in Monroe County is Flood, with 8 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (7), Biological (2), Severe Ice Storm (1).
How does Monroe County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Illinois average?
FEMA lists 20 declaration records for Monroe County. That is 56% above the Illinois county mean of 12.9. Its count is also 3% below 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 Monroe County received?
Monroe County has received 18 major disaster declarations, representing 90% of all 20 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Monroe County filed?
Monroe County has 689 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $22.7M in payments, with an average of $33.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Monroe County?
No. In Monroe County, Heat Wave has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $6.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Monroe County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Monroe County was 1983, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1969 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Monroe County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Monroe County, Illinois has an overall risk score of 41.9 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $22.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Monroe County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Monroe County as of the latest release is Heat Wave (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Earthquake (Relatively Low) and Landslide (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts heat wave here at 13 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 148 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.
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 Monroe County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Illinois profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events