FEMA Records
15
Below median
Montana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Musselshell County, MT
15 FEMA disaster declarations (1977-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 15
- FEMA declarations
- 9
- Major disasters
- 17
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Musselshell County. Its 15 FEMA declarations are 37% above the Montana county mean and exceed the count for 23% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 17%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 17%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 15
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 60
- 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 30065 · Musselshell County 15 declarations · rank 2402/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 15
- MAJOR-MID 60%
- RANK-LOWER #2,402
- PHOTO-FINISH Polk
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-ABOVE +37%
Nearest declaration peer: Polk, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Montana state profile
Musselshell County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Musselshell County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Flathead · near 15
Flathead · near
15 declarations
- Murray · near 15
Murray · near
15 declarations
- Musselshell · this county 15
Musselshell · this county
15 declarations
- Polk · near 15
Polk · near
15 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Musselshell County carries 15 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2402 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Musselshell County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Musselshell County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Musselshell County
15 23rd percentile higher than 23% 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
Musselshell County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Musselshell County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $1.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), 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 Musselshell County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 60 paid claims, totaling $1.2M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $20.0K 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. Musselshell County's 15 federal records stand 37% above the Montana county mean of 11.0. 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's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 17.0/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $4.9M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Relatively High social-vulnerability score and Relatively Low community-resilience score. 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 268 years here.
58 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Musselshell County, MT · 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
11/30
15 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
17/25
15 declarations (1.4x state county average of 11)
Major Disaster Share High
15/25
9 of 15 declarations are major disasters (60%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Musselshell County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Musselshell 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
60%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
17
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Musselshell 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 268 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 31 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 17 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 2.1 times per year |
| Drought | Very Low | 70 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,511 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 2.1 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 4
Fire 4
Severe Storm 3
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Drought 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Musselshell 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 - 9 60.0%
of all 15 declarations
Fire Management - 3 20.0%
of all 15 declarations
Emergency - 3 20.0%
of all 15 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 15 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 15 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4745 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2023-10-11 |
| 5344 | BOBCAT FIRE | FM | Fire | 2020-09-02 |
| 4508 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-31 |
| 3476 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4405 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2018-10-31 |
| 4198 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2014-10-09 |
| 4172 | ICE JAMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2014-04-17 |
| 4127 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2013-07-10 |
| 2988 | DAHL FIRE | FM | Fire | 2012-06-26 |
| 1996 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-06-17 |
| 3253 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1340 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2000-08-30 |
| 2266 | FISHEL CREEK FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 1999-07-26 |
| 1183 | SEVERE STORMS,ICE JAMS, SNOW MELT, FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-07-25 |
| 3050 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-08-22 |
Storm Events in Montana
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Musselshell County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 3,735 | 1 | 2 | $5.3M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 2,396 | 5 | 24 | $15.1M |
| Hail | 2,015 | 0 | 0 | $4.1M |
| Winter Storm | 1,502 | 13 | 18 | $11.2M |
| Heavy Snow | 796 | 5 | 3 | $143.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
60
Total Paid
$1.2M
Avg Per Claim
$20.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 17.0/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$4.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Low
Drought Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Ice Storm 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.
For Musselshell County the two measures on this page point the same way: Wildfire is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Moderate), and Fire declarations also lead its federal record. Where the model and the declaration history agree, the reading is comparatively straightforward, the hazard is both expected and repeatedly realised.
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
Musselshell County's closest FEMA peer: Oakland County, MI
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Musselshell County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Musselshell County shows 15 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Musselshell County: 9 of 15 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Musselshell County: NRI composite 17.0 (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 Musselshell County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Musselshell 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: 17.0 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 15. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Musselshell County's NFIP claims file (60 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 Musselshell County?
The most common disaster type in Musselshell County is Fire, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (4), Severe Storm (3), Biological (2).
How does Musselshell County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Montana average?
FEMA lists 15 declaration records for Musselshell County. That is 37% above the Montana county mean of 11.0. Its count is also 28% 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 Musselshell County received?
Musselshell County has received 9 major disaster declarations, representing 60% of all 15 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Musselshell County filed?
Musselshell County has 60 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $1.2M in payments, with an average of $20.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Musselshell County?
No. In Musselshell County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $1.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Musselshell County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Musselshell County was 2020, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1977 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Musselshell County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Musselshell County, Montana has an overall risk score of 17.0 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively High; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $4.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Musselshell County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Musselshell County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Lightning (Relatively Moderate) and Cold Wave (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 268 years. These scores are based on FEMA's analysis of historical event frequency, 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 Musselshell County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Montana profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events