FEMA Records
11
Low volume
Michigan · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Monroe County, MI
11 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 11
- FEMA declarations
- 6
- Major disasters
- 82
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Monroe County. Its 11 FEMA declarations are 10% above the Michigan county mean and exceed the count for 12% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 18%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 18%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 11
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 1,672
- 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 26115 · Monroe County 11 declarations · rank 2821/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 11
- MAJOR-MID 55%
- RANK-LOWER #2,821
- PHOTO-FINISH Meeker
- NRI-MID 82
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +10%
Nearest declaration peer: Meeker, MN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Michigan state profile
Monroe County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Monroe County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Davis · near 11
Davis · near
11 declarations
- Meeker · near 11
Meeker · near
11 declarations
- Monroe · this county 11
Monroe · this county
11 declarations
- Wasatch · near 11
Wasatch · near
11 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Monroe County carries 11 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2821 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Monroe County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Monroe County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Monroe County
11 12th percentile higher than 12% 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 $34.0M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), 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 Monroe County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 1,672 claims and $9.9M 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 $5.9K. 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 11 federal records stand 10% above the Michigan county mean of 10.0. 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 82.5/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $54.7M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Low and community resilience Very 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 5 times per year here, based on 158 historical events on record.
51 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Monroe County, MI · 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
8/30
11 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.5x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
14/25
11 declarations (1.1x state county average of 10)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
6 of 11 declarations are major disasters (55%)
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
55%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
82
Relatively Moderate
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 5 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.3 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.9 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.1 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 8.9 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 3.8 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 918 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 38 times per year |
| Coastal Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 118 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 42,477 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 13 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 4
Biological 2
Snowstorm 2
Hurricane 1
Other 1
Tornado 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Monroe County's record, 36% 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 - 6 54.5%
of all 11 declarations
Emergency - 5 45.5%
of all 11 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1982 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 2 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 11 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 11 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4757 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2024-02-08 |
| 4494 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-27 |
| 3455 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 3225 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-07 |
| 3189 | POWER OUTAGE | EM | Other | 2003-09-23 |
| 3137 | MI - SEVERE WEATHER 1/2 /99 | EM | Snowstorm | 1999-01-27 |
| 654 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1982-03-29 |
| 3057 | BLIZZARDS & SNOWSTORMS | EM | Snowstorm | 1978-01-27 |
| 371 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-04-12 |
| 363 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-12-01 |
| 190 | TORNADOES & SEVERE STORMS | DR | Tornado | 1965-04-14 |
Storm Events in Michigan
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Monroe County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 3,010 | 10 | 18 | $173.8M |
| Winter Storm | 1,486 | 3 | 11 | $41.8M |
| Winter Weather | 1,254 | 21 | 38 | $892.0K |
| Hail | 962 | 0 | 0 | $77.1M |
| High Wind | 389 | 3 | 2 | $668.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
1,672
Total Paid
$9.9M
Avg Per Claim
$5.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 82.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$54.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Strong Wind Relatively High
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively High
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Earthquake Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Coastal Flooding Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Drought 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: 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.
Worth noting for Monroe County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Strong Wind 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
Monroe County's closest FEMA peer: Covington County, AL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Monroe County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Monroe County: NRI composite 82.5 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar Major-disaster share
Monroe County: 6 of 11 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Monroe County shows 11 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
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: 82.5 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 11. 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 (1,672 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 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Snowstorm (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Monroe County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Michigan average?
FEMA lists 11 declaration records for Monroe County. That is 10% above the Michigan county mean of 10.0. Its count is also 47% 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 6 major disaster declarations, representing 55% of all 11 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Monroe County filed?
Monroe County has 1,672 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $9.9M in payments, with an average of $5.9K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Monroe County?
No. In Monroe County, Strong Wind has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $34.0M. 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 1973, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Monroe County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Monroe County, Michigan has an overall risk score of 82.5 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Low and community resilience is Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $54.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Monroe County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Monroe County is Strong Wind (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Tornado (Relatively Moderate) and Riverine Flooding (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts strong wind here at an average of 5 times per year, drawn from 158 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 · Michigan profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events