FEMA Records
15
Below median
Michigan · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Oakland County, MI
15 FEMA disaster declarations (1975-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively High. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 15
- FEMA declarations
- 9
- Major disasters
- 98
- NRI risk · Relatively High
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Oakland County. Its 15 FEMA declarations are 50% above the Michigan county mean and exceed the count for 23% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 2%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 2%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively High
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 15
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 581
- 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 26125 · Oakland County 15 declarations · rank 2394/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-HIGH · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-HIGH
- DECL-MID 15
- MAJOR-MID 60%
- RANK-LOWER #2,394
- PHOTO-FINISH Polk
- NRI-HIGH 98
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-HIGH +50%
Nearest declaration peer: Polk, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Michigan state profile
Oakland County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Oakland 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
- Oakland · this county 15
Oakland · this county
15 declarations
- Polk · near 15
Polk · near
15 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Oakland County carries 15 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2394 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Oakland County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Oakland County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Oakland 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
Oakland County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Oakland County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $164.9M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Tornado carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Very High). 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 Oakland County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 581 claims and $5.5M in payments. PlainHazard labels 500 or more claims a heavy registry record; that is a reporting bucket, not an official FEMA risk grade. The average paid claim was $9.5K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Oakland County's 15 federal records stand 50% above the Michigan county mean of 10.0. 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 sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 97.5/100 (Relatively High). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively High (roughly $359.1M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very Low and community resilience Very High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Tornado stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 3 years here, based on 32 historical events on record.
60 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Oakland County, MI · 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 Very High
19/25
15 declarations (1.5x state county average of 10)
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 Oakland County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Oakland 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
98
Relatively High
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Oakland 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tornado | Very High | roughly once every 3 years |
| Ice Storm | Very High | an average of 1.8 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Very High | an average of 2.6 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Very High | an average of 5.5 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively High | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively High | 4.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.8 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 12 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1,279 years |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 35 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 76,690 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 91 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 5
Flood 3
Snowstorm 3
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Other 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Oakland County's record, 33% 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 - 9 60.0%
of all 15 declarations
Emergency - 6 40.0%
of all 15 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 2 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4757 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2024-02-08 |
| 4607 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2021-07-15 |
| 4494 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-27 |
| 3455 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4195 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2014-09-25 |
| 3225 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-07 |
| 1527 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-06-30 |
| 3189 | POWER OUTAGE | EM | Other | 2003-09-23 |
| 3160 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2001-01-10 |
| 1346 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-10-17 |
| 3137 | MI - SEVERE WEATHER 1/2 /99 | EM | Snowstorm | 1999-01-27 |
| 1181 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES,AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-07-11 |
| 3057 | BLIZZARDS & SNOWSTORMS | EM | Snowstorm | 1978-01-27 |
| 495 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, ICING & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1976-03-19 |
| 465 | SEVERE STORMS, HIGH WINDS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-04-26 |
Storm Events in Michigan
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Oakland County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 3,010 | 10 | 18 | $173.8M |
| Winter Storm | 1,486 | 3 | 11 | $41.8M |
| Winter Weather | 1,254 | 21 | 38 | $892.0K |
| Hail | 962 | 0 | 0 | $77.1M |
| High Wind | 389 | 3 | 2 | $668.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
581
Total Paid
$5.5M
Avg Per Claim
$9.5K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively High
Score: 97.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively High
$359.1M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Tornado Very High
Ice Storm Very High
Cold Wave Very High
Strong Wind Very High
Riverine Flooding Relatively High
Heat Wave Relatively High
Hail Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively High
Landslide Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Drought 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: Tornado
Tornado exposure is the most spatially concentrated in the model: total destruction along a narrow corridor with intact property either side. County-level averages therefore understate severity badly for anyone actually in the path, and overstate it for everyone else.
For Oakland County the two measures on this page point the same way: Tornado is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Very High), and Severe Storm 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
Oakland County's closest FEMA peer: Marion County, IN
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Oakland County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Oakland County: NRI composite 97.5 (Relatively High).
Similar Major-disaster share
Oakland County: 9 of 15 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Oakland County shows 15 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
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 Oakland County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Oakland 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: 97.5 (Relatively High).
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
Oakland County's NFIP claims file (581 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 Oakland County?
The most common disaster type in Oakland County is Severe Storm, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (3), Snowstorm (3), Biological (2).
How does Oakland County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Michigan average?
FEMA lists 15 declaration records for Oakland County. That is 50% above the Michigan county mean of 10.0. 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 Oakland County received?
Oakland County has received 9 major disaster declarations, representing 60% of all 15 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Oakland County filed?
Oakland County has 581 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $5.5M in payments, with an average of $9.5K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Oakland County?
No. In Oakland County, Tornado has the highest National Risk Index rating (Very High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $164.9M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Oakland County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Oakland County was 2001, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1975 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Oakland County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Oakland County, Michigan has an overall risk score of 97.5 out of 100 (Relatively High). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very Low and community resilience is Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively High, representing $359.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Oakland County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Oakland County as of the latest release is Tornado (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Ice Storm (Very High) and Cold Wave (Very High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts tornado here at roughly once every 3 years, drawn from 32 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 Oakland County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Michigan profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events