FEMA Records
5
Low volume
Wyoming · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Niobrara County, WY
5 FEMA disaster declarations (1978-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Biological.
- 5
- FEMA declarations
- 4
- Major disasters
- 3
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Biological
- Top hazard
The verdict
Start with the local benchmark for Niobrara County: 5 FEMA declaration records are 12% below the Wyoming county mean, even though the count is higher than 2% 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 3%.
- Safer than 3%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 5
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 1
- 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 56027 · Niobrara County 5 declarations · rank 3180/3,266
DECL-LIGHT · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-MODERATE · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-LIGHT 5
- MAJOR-HEAVY 80%
- RANK-LOWER #3,180
- PHOTO-FINISH Goshen
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-MODERATE Moderate
- TYPE-LEAD Biological
- VS-ST-BELOW -12%
Nearest declaration peer: Goshen, WY (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Wyoming state profile
Niobrara County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Niobrara County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Carbon · near 5
Carbon · near
5 declarations
- Goshen · near 5
Goshen · near
5 declarations
- Lemhi · near 5
Lemhi · near
5 declarations
- Niobrara · this county 5
Niobrara · this county
5 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Niobrara County carries 5 FEMA declaration records, ranked 3180 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Niobrara County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Niobrara County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Niobrara County
5 2nd percentile higher than 2% 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
Niobrara County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Niobrara County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $690.9K Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Wildfire carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low). 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 Niobrara 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 3.3/100 (rated Very Low). Projected losses are minimal, Expected Annual Loss reads Very Low (roughly $1.8M in annualized losses), and the county's exposure is shaped by a Relatively High social-vulnerability profile and Very Low community resilience. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Wildfire, only reaches Relatively Low on FEMA's scale, none of the 18 modeled hazards stand out here. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 353 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 1 claim and $570 paid in total. PlainHazard calls 1-49 claims a light registry record, a label for this dataset rather than a finding that flood exposure is low. A short claims history can also reflect insurance take-up, the period covered, or losses that were never insured.
Start with the state benchmark: a Wyoming county averages 5.7 federal declaration records, while Niobrara County has 5. The gap is 12% 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.
43 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Niobrara County, WY · 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
4/30
5 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.2x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
5 declarations (0.9x state county average of 6)
Major Disaster Share Very High
20/25
4 of 5 declarations are major disasters (80%)
Hazard Diversity Moderate
8/20
3 different disaster types declared in Niobrara County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Niobrara 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
80%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
3
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Niobrara 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 Low | roughly once every 353 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 17 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 4.5 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 875 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 3 times per year |
| Drought | Very Low | 105 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 43 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Biological 2
Flood 2
Severe Ice Storm 1
What Biological declarations mean here
Biological is the most frequent declaration type on Niobrara County's record, 40% of its declarations. In practice this category is dominated by the COVID-19 declarations of 2020, which were issued across every US state and territory rather than in response to any local hazard event.
This has a direct consequence for how Niobrara County's number should be read. Because those declarations reached essentially every county in the country, they raise every county's total by a similar amount and tell you nothing about local hazard exposure. A county whose record is led by Biological declarations is, in most cases, a county with a genuinely quiet weather-hazard history, the pandemic records are simply the largest thing in an otherwise short list.
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 - 4 80.0%
of all 5 declarations
Emergency - 1 20.0%
of all 5 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 5 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 5 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4535 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-11 |
| 3479 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4227 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2015-07-07 |
| 1268 | WY - WINTER STORM 10/5/98 | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 1999-02-17 |
| 557 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING & MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 1978-05-29 |
Storm Events in Wyoming
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Niobrara County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 5,115 | 0 | 21 | $1.5M |
| Winter Storm | 2,212 | 1 | 41 | $115.0K |
| Hail | 1,811 | 0 | 0 | $5.5M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 1,137 | 1 | 12 | $916.3K |
| Winter Weather | 616 | 3 | 7 | $100.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
1
Total Paid
$570
Avg Per Claim
$570
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 3.3/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$1.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Hail Very Low
Drought Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Strong Wind 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.
Worth noting for Niobrara County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Wildfire carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Low), while the county's declaration history is led by Biological. 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
Niobrara County's closest FEMA peer: Minidoka County, ID
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Niobrara County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Niobrara County shows 5 FEMA declarations, led by Biological.
Similar Major-disaster share
Niobrara County: 4 of 5 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Niobrara County: NRI composite 3.3 (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 Niobrara County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Niobrara 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: 3.3 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 5. 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 Wildfire as the top modeled exposure here (Relatively Low); 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 Niobrara County?
The most common disaster type in Niobrara County is Biological, with 2 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (2), Severe Ice Storm (1).
How does Niobrara County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Wyoming average?
The typical Wyoming county has 5.7 FEMA declaration records; Niobrara County has 5, or 12% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 76% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Niobrara County received?
Niobrara County has received 4 major disaster declarations, representing 80% of all 5 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Niobrara County filed?
Niobrara County has 1 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $570 in payments, with an average of $570 per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Niobrara County?
No. In Niobrara County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $690.9K. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Niobrara County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Niobrara County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1978 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Niobrara County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Niobrara County, Wyoming has an overall risk score of 3.3 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively High; on community resilience, Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $1.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Niobrara County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Niobrara County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Winter Weather (Relatively Low) and Cold Wave (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 353 years. 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 Niobrara County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Wyoming profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events