FEMA Records
8
Low volume
Alaska · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
North Slope Borough, AK
8 FEMA disaster declarations (1987-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 8
- FEMA declarations
- 7
- Major disasters
- 15
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
FEMA records a middle-volume declaration history for North Slope Borough: 8 entries, 11% above its Alaska county benchmark and ahead of 6% of counties nationally. The National Risk Index answers a different question. Its modeled loss, vulnerability, and resilience inputs place this county safer than 15% of U.S. counties.
- Safer than 15%
- 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
- 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.
How does North Slope Borough compare?
North Slope Borough vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
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 · 2026-08-03
North Slope Borough's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Alaska county average
What does North Slope Borough's hazard record show?
Declaration frequency
North Slope Borough falls in the middle of the national declaration-count range but above its local benchmark. FEMA lists 8 records, 11% more than the Alaska county mean; 7 are classified as Major Disasters. The observed span averages 0.2 entries per year. Severe Storm contributes the largest group at 4. These are response classifications, not a complete list of damage or aid.
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's National Risk Index places this county in the low end of the national distribution, composite score 14.8/100 (Very Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $4.9M in annualized losses). Two modifiers shape how that exposure becomes real-world harm here: social vulnerability (Relatively Moderate) and community resilience (Very Low). Among the 18 modeled hazards, Cold Wave carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 10 times per year here, based on 180 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 1 claim and $55.8K 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.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. North Slope Borough's 8 federal records stand 11% above the Alaska county mean of 7.2. 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.
52 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
North Slope Borough, AK · 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 High
14/25
8 declarations (1.1x state county average of 7)
Major Disaster Share Very High
22/25
7 of 8 declarations are major disasters (88%)
Hazard Diversity High
10/20
4 different disaster types declared in North Slope Borough
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
Moderate
vs. Alaska Avg
+11%
State avg: 7.2
vs. National Avg
-61%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.2
Over 33 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - North Slope Borough
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
88%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
15
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike North Slope Borough?
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. These modeled frequencies are not forecasts.
| Hazard | NRI Risk Rating | Recurrence |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 10 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 20 times per year |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 38 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 14,527 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 28 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 16 times per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 1,363 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
Coastal Storm 1
Flood 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on North Slope Borough'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 - 7 87.5%
of all 8 declarations
Emergency - 1 12.5%
of all 8 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1987 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4533 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-09 |
| 3446 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4351 | SEVERE STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2017-12-20 |
| 4244 | SEVERE STORM | DR | Coastal Storm | 2015-10-30 |
| 4050 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-12-22 |
| 1796 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-09-26 |
| 1584 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2005-03-14 |
| 781 | COASTAL STORM, HIGH WINDS & WAVES | DR | Flood | 1986-10-27 |
Storm Events in Alaska
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to North Slope Borough.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 709 | 0 | 1 | $8.4M |
| Blizzard | 524 | 0 | 0 | $60.0K |
| Heavy Snow | 439 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Winter Storm | 385 | 0 | 0 | $200.0K |
| Flood | 182 | 0 | 0 | $81.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
1
Total Paid
$55.8K
Avg Per Claim
$55.8K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 14.8/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$4.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Avalanche Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Coastal Flooding No Rating
Drought No Rating
Hail No Rating
Strong Wind 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: Cold Wave
Cold Wave measures exposure to extreme cold rather than to snow. Its harm is concentrated in health effects, burst infrastructure and energy demand spikes, and it falls hardest where the building stock and the grid were not built with sustained cold in mind.
Worth noting for North Slope Borough: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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
North Slope Borough's closest FEMA peer: Wayne County, IL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for North Slope Borough. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
North Slope Borough shows 8 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
North Slope Borough: 7 of 8 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
North Slope Borough: NRI composite 14.8 (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 North Slope Borough - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
FEMA's National Risk Index flags Cold Wave as the top modeled exposure here (Relatively Moderate); 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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in North Slope Borough?
The most common disaster type in North Slope Borough is Severe Storm, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Coastal Storm (1), Flood (1).
How does North Slope Borough's FEMA declaration record compare with the Alaska average?
FEMA lists 8 declaration records for North Slope Borough. That is 11% above the Alaska county mean of 7.2. Its count is also 61% 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 North Slope Borough received?
North Slope Borough has received 7 major disaster declarations, representing 88% of all 8 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has North Slope Borough filed?
North Slope Borough has 1 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $55.8K in payments, with an average of $55.8K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in North Slope Borough?
The most active year for disaster declarations in North Slope Borough was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1987 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for North Slope Borough?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, North Slope Borough, Alaska has an overall risk score of 14.8 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Moderate and community resilience is Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $4.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to North Slope Borough?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for North Slope Borough is Cold Wave (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate) and Avalanche (Very Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 10 times per year, drawn from 180 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.
What this means for North Slope Borough
North Slope Borough, AK has 8 federal declaration records, 11% more than the Alaska county mean of 7; its history sits in PlainHazard's moderate activity band.
- Within this above-state-average declaration file, major disaster leads with 7 of 8 records; the category describes past federal action, not the next likely hazard. Alaska overview
- The state benchmark and national rank point the same way: this count tops the Alaska mean and the totals for 6% of 3,266 U.S. counties. Most-disaster rankings
- A short NFIP claims file cannot establish low flood exposure; the data guide explains the limits of each federal measure. Disaster-data guide
An above-average declaration count records past federal responses; it does not predict the next event. Current warnings come from the National Weather Service and local emergency officials.
PlainHazard derives this profile from FEMA's Disaster Declarations Summaries and National Risk Index data. The declaration comparison covers 3,266 U.S. counties and county equivalents in this database, refreshed as of 2026-08-03. Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
All federal data sources used on this page
- FEMA OpenFEMA, Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 - all federally-declared disasters for this county. fema.gov/openfema/disaster-declarations
- FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) - per-county per-hazard risk ratings and expected annual loss. hazards.fema.gov/nri
- NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database - state-level storm/severe-weather event records, 2015-2025. ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainHazard Editorial
Verify with FEMA → · Verify with FEMA NRI → · Verify with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.