FEMA Records
8
Low volume
Kansas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Morton County, KS
8 FEMA disaster declarations (2005-2022), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 8
- FEMA declarations
- 5
- Major disasters
- 5
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Start with the local benchmark for Morton County: 8 FEMA declaration records are 56% below the Kansas 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
- 4
- severe storm declarations, the most common hazard here
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 20129 · Morton County 8 declarations · rank 3023/3,266
DECL-LIGHT · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-MODERATE · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-LOW
- DECL-LIGHT 8
- MAJOR-MID 63%
- RANK-LOWER #3,023
- PHOTO-FINISH Marion
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-MODERATE Moderate
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-LOW -56%
Nearest declaration peer: Marion, IL (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Kansas state profile
Morton County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Morton 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
- Morton · this county 8
Morton · this county
8 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Morton County carries 8 FEMA declaration records, ranked 3023 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Morton County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Morton County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Morton 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
Morton County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Morton County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits at the very bottom of FEMA's National Risk Index nationally, a composite score of 4.7/100 (rated Very Low). Projected losses are minimal, Expected Annual Loss reads Very Low (roughly $4.0M in annualized losses), and the county's exposure is shaped by a Very Low social-vulnerability profile and Very Low community resilience. 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 142 modeled event-days per year here, based on 3,591 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 Kansas county averages 18.0 federal declaration records, while Morton County has 8. The gap is 56% 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.
38 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Morton County, KS · 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 Low
6/25
8 declarations (0.4x state county average of 18)
Major Disaster Share High
16/25
5 of 8 declarations are major disasters (63%)
Hazard Diversity High
10/20
4 different disaster types declared in Morton County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Morton 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
63%
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 Morton 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 | 142 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 271 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 6.4 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 9.1 times per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 43 times per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,776 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | an average of 2.4 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | an average of 2.7 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 13 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 4
Biological 2
Snowstorm 1
Hurricane 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Morton County's record, 50% of its declarations. In FEMA's vocabulary this covers convective weather: thunderstorm straight-line winds, large hail, and the multi-day outbreaks that often carry embedded tornadoes. Activity is heaviest in spring and summer, though the season varies by region.
These events behave differently from a hurricane on paper. Damage tends to be distributed along a storm track rather than concentrated on a coastline, and a declaration typically follows an outbreak that crossed several counties over a few days, not a single point of impact. Because the qualifying threshold is the cost of uninsured public and individual losses rather than storm intensity, two similar storms can produce a declaration in one year and none in another.
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 - 5 62.5%
of all 8 declarations
Emergency - 3 37.5%
of all 8 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4640 | SEVERE STORMS AND STRAIGHT LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-02-17 |
| 4504 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-29 |
| 3481 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4319 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, SNOWSTORM, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Snowstorm | 2017-06-16 |
| 4010 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-07-29 |
| 3282 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | EM | Severe Storm | 2007-12-12 |
| 1675 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-01-07 |
| 3236 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
Storm Events in Kansas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Morton County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 8,265 | 0 | 9 | $24.2M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 7,987 | 3 | 34 | $30.6M |
| High Wind | 1,553 | 1 | 7 | $10.2M |
| Drought | 1,272 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Flash Flood | 1,037 | 6 | 9 | $35.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 4.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$4.0M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Lightning Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Riverine Flooding 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 Morton 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 Severe Storm. 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
Morton County's closest FEMA peer: Dolores County, CO
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Morton County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Morton County shows 8 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Morton County: 5 of 8 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Morton County: NRI composite 4.7 (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 Morton County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Morton 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: 4.7 (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 Drought 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 Morton County?
The most common disaster type in Morton County is Severe Storm, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Snowstorm (1), Hurricane (1).
How does Morton County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Kansas average?
The typical Kansas county has 18.0 FEMA declaration records; Morton County has 8, or 56% 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 Morton County received?
Morton County has received 5 major disaster declarations, representing 63% of all 8 disaster declarations.
What was the worst year for disasters in Morton County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Morton County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 2005 to 2022.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Morton County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Morton County, Kansas has an overall risk score of 4.7 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $4.0M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Morton County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Morton County as of the latest release is Drought (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Relatively Low) and Hail (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 142 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 3,591 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 Morton County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Kansas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events