FEMA Records
15
Below median
Minnesota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Olmsted County, MN
15 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 15
- FEMA declarations
- 12
- Major disasters
- 82
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Olmsted County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 15 declarations, more than 23% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 15% below the Minnesota county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 18%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 18%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 15
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 719
- 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 Olmsted County compare?
Olmsted County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
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 · 2026-08-03
Olmsted County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Minnesota county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Olmsted County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $55.8M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Cold Wave carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively 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 Olmsted County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 719 claims and $5.3M 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 $7.4K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
Start with the state benchmark: a Minnesota county averages 17.7 federal declaration records, while Olmsted County has 15. The gap is 15% 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 82.3/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $93.6M 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, Cold Wave stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 10 times per year here, based on 191 historical events on record.
Declaration frequency
Nationally, Olmsted County's 15 FEMA records form a high-volume history; within Minnesota, however, the count is 15% below the county mean. 12 entries carry the Major Disaster classification. The largest incident group is Severe Storm, appearing 4 times. The full 55-year record averages 0.3 declarations annually. A DR label alone does not say whether Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, or both followed.
60 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Olmsted County, MN · 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 Moderate
11/25
15 declarations (0.8x state county average of 18)
Major Disaster Share Very High
20/25
12 of 15 declarations are major disasters (80%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Olmsted County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Minnesota Avg
-15%
State avg: 17.7
vs. National Avg
-28%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.3
Over 55 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Olmsted 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
82
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Olmsted 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Wave | Relatively High | an average of 10 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.7 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 20 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 3.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.7 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 8.1 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 37 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 59,749 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,849 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 4
Severe Storm 4
Biological 2
Tornado 2
Hurricane 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
Drought 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Olmsted County's record, 27% 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 - 12 80.0%
of all 15 declarations
Emergency - 3 20.0%
of all 15 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4531 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-07 |
| 3453 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4442 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-06-12 |
| 1941 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-10-13 |
| 1921 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 2010-07-02 |
| 1717 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-08-23 |
| 3242 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1569 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-10-07 |
| 1370 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Flood | 2001-05-16 |
| 1225 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1998-06-23 |
| 929 | ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 1991-12-26 |
| 560 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, HAIL & TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1978-07-08 |
| 3013 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1976-06-17 |
| 446 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1974-07-13 |
| 188 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1965-04-11 |
Storm Events in Minnesota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Olmsted County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,420 | 13 | 25 | $68.2M |
| Hail | 4,203 | 0 | 0 | $34.5M |
| Extreme Cold/Wind Chill | 1,789 | 7 | 4 | $55.0K |
| Winter Storm | 1,695 | 2 | 17 | $10.0M |
| Heavy Snow | 1,190 | 9 | 14 | $1.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
719
Total Paid
$5.3M
Avg Per Claim
$7.4K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 82.3/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$93.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Relatively High
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Hurricane 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 Olmsted County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave 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
Olmsted County's closest FEMA peer: Pottawatomie County, OK
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Olmsted County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Olmsted County: NRI composite 82.3 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar Major-disaster share
Olmsted County: 12 of 15 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Olmsted 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 Olmsted County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Olmsted County's NFIP claims file (719 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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Olmsted County?
The most common disaster type in Olmsted County is Severe Storm, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (4), Biological (2), Tornado (2).
How does Olmsted County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Minnesota average?
The typical Minnesota county has 17.7 FEMA declaration records; Olmsted County has 15, or 15% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 28% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Olmsted County received?
Olmsted County has received 12 major disaster declarations, representing 80% of all 15 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Olmsted County filed?
Olmsted County has 719 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $5.3M in payments, with an average of $7.4K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Olmsted County?
No. In Olmsted County, Cold Wave has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $55.8M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Olmsted County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Olmsted County was 2005, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Olmsted County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Olmsted County, Minnesota has an overall risk score of 82.3 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very Low and community resilience is Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $93.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Olmsted County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Olmsted County as of the latest release is Cold Wave (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Tornado (Relatively Moderate) and Riverine Flooding (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 10 times per year, drawn from 191 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 Olmsted County
Against a Minnesota county mean of 18 declarations, Olmsted County, MN records 15, or 15% fewer. PlainHazard classifies that historical total as high activity.
- Major Disaster is the largest group (12 of 15) in a declaration history that remains below its state benchmark; frequency here is not a forecast. Minnesota overview
- Nationally the county exceeds 23% of recorded county totals, but its own Minnesota benchmark is higher. The ranking keeps those two contexts separate. Most-disaster rankings
- The large NFIP claims file and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records; the guide explains where they overlap and where they do not. Disaster-data guide
A below-average federal record is not a safety guarantee. Use National Weather Service alerts and local emergency-management notices for present conditions, not this historical comparison.
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.