FEMA Records
22
Above median
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Montague County, TX
22 FEMA disaster declarations (1982-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 22
- FEMA declarations
- 14
- Major disasters
- 55
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Montague County. Its 22 FEMA declarations are 5% above the Texas county mean and exceed the count for 57% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 45%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 45%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 22
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 77
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
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 48337 · Montague County 22 declarations · rank 1305/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 22
- MAJOR-MID 64%
- RANK-LOWER #1,305
- PHOTO-FINISH Hardy
- NRI-LOW 55
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-ABOVE +5%
Nearest declaration peer: Hardy, WV (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Texas state profile
Montague County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Montague County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Hardy · near 22
Hardy · near
22 declarations
- Montague · this county 22
Montague · this county
22 declarations
- Prairie · near 22
Prairie · near
22 declarations
- St. Francis · near 22
St. Francis · near
22 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Montague County carries 22 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1305 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Montague County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Montague County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Montague County
22 Top 43% higher than 57% 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
Montague County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Montague County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 77 paid claims, totaling $1.5M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $18.9K 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. Montague County's 22 federal records stand 5% above the Texas county mean of 20.9. 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
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 54.9/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $15.6M in annualized losses), and a Relatively Moderate social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively Low community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Drought stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 36 modeled event-days per year here, based on 1,302 historical events on record.
63 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Montague County, TX · 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) High
16/30
22 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.1x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
13/25
22 declarations (1.1x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share High
16/25
14 of 22 declarations are major disasters (64%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Montague County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Montague 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
64%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
55
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Montague 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drought | Relatively High | 36 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 166 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 14 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.7 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 9.7 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 142 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 951 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 5.3 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 52 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 6
Severe Storm 5
Severe Ice Storm 3
Hurricane 3
Flood 2
Biological 2
Drought 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Montague County's record, 27% of its declarations. Wildfire is the one hazard here with its own dedicated federal instrument: the Fire Management Assistance Grant, which appears in this data as an FM record. An FMAG can be authorised while a fire is still burning, on a timescale of hours, because its purpose is to reimburse the cost of fighting a fire that threatens to become a major disaster.
That distinction matters when comparing counties. An FM declaration is not a presidential major disaster declaration and does not carry the same assistance programmes, so a fire-heavy county's total is not directly comparable with a hurricane-heavy county's total unless the declaration types are separated, which is why they are listed separately on this page.
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 - 14 63.6%
of all 22 declarations
Emergency - 7 31.8%
of all 22 declarations
Fire Management - 1 4.5%
of all 22 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1989 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1982 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 22 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 22 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4781 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2024-05-17 |
| 4586 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-19 |
| 3554 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-14 |
| 4485 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3458 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4223 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-05-29 |
| 4029 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2011-09-09 |
| 1999 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2011-07-01 |
| 3284 | WILDFIRES | EM | Fire | 2008-03-14 |
| 1709 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-06-29 |
| 1624 | EXTREME WILDFIRE THREAT | DR | Fire | 2006-01-11 |
| 2598 | RINGGOLD FIRE | FM | Fire | 2006-01-01 |
| 1606 | HURRICANE RITA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-09-24 |
| 3261 | HURRICANE RITA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-21 |
| 3216 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-02 |
| 1356 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2001-01-08 |
| 3142 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARDS | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
| 1239 | TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-26 |
| 3113 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Drought | 1993-09-10 |
| 863 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-05-02 |
Show 2 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 828 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1989-05-19 |
| 648 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1981-10-23 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Montague County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 14,072 | 0 | 15 | $7.4B |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 10,293 | 41 | 141 | $369.9M |
| Drought | 7,032 | 0 | 0 | $86.0K |
| Flash Flood | 4,728 | 338 | 24 | $47.6B |
| Heat | 4,079 | 119 | 405 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
77
Total Paid
$1.5M
Avg Per Claim
$18.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 54.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$15.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively High
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding 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: Drought
Drought is the slowest of the modeled hazards and the least visible: it does its damage to agriculture, water supply and soil over seasons rather than hours, so it rarely produces the kind of single-day damage that drives a disaster declaration. FEMA scores it in event-days per year rather than discrete events for exactly that reason.
Worth noting for Montague County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively High), while the county's declaration history is led by Fire. 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
Montague County's closest FEMA peer: Carroll County, GA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Montague County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Montague County shows 22 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Montague County: 14 of 22 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Montague County: NRI composite 54.9 (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 Montague County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Montague 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: 54.9 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 22. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Montague County's NFIP claims file (77 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 Montague County?
The most common disaster type in Montague County is Fire, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (5), Severe Ice Storm (3), Hurricane (3).
How does Montague County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
FEMA lists 22 declaration records for Montague County. That is 5% above the Texas county mean of 20.9. Its count is also 6% 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 Montague County received?
Montague County has received 14 major disaster declarations, representing 64% of all 22 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Montague County filed?
Montague County has 77 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $1.5M in payments, with an average of $18.9K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Montague County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Montague County was 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1982 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Montague County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Montague County, Texas has an overall risk score of 54.9 out of 100 (Relatively Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Moderate and community resilience is Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $15.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Montague County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Montague County is Drought (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Relatively Moderate) and Ice Storm (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 36 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 1,302 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Montague County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events