FEMA Records
33
Very high volume
Vermont · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Orleans County, VT
33 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 33
- FEMA declarations
- 27
- Major disasters
- 37
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Orleans County. Its 33 FEMA declarations are 15% above the Vermont county mean and exceed the count for 91% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 37%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 37%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 33
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 102
- 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 50019 · Orleans County 33 declarations · rank 290/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 33
- MAJOR-HEAVY 82%
- RANK-UPPER #290
- PHOTO-FINISH Nelson
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-ABOVE +15%
Nearest declaration peer: Nelson, ND (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Vermont state profile
Orleans County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Orleans County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Garvin · near 33
Garvin · near
33 declarations
- Monterey · near 33
Monterey · near
33 declarations
- Nelson · near 33
Nelson · near
33 declarations
- Orleans · this county 33
Orleans · this county
33 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Orleans County carries 33 FEMA declaration records, ranked 290 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Orleans County ranks in the national declaration registry
Orleans County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Orleans County
33 Top 9% higher than 91% 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
Orleans County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Orleans County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $9.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Landslide 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 Orleans County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 102 paid claims, totaling $2.6M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $25.7K 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. Orleans County's 33 federal records stand 15% above the Vermont county mean of 28.8. 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
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 36.8/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $11.9M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively Low) and community resilience (Relatively High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Landslide, 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 1 years here.
76 /100
Historical Activity Index
Very High historical activity
Orleans County, VT · 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) Very High
24/30
33 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.6x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
14/25
33 declarations (1.1x state county average of 29)
Major Disaster Share Very High
20/25
27 of 33 declarations are major disasters (82%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Orleans County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Orleans 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
82%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
37
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Orleans 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 23 times per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 34 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 1.8 times per year |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 4.9 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 22 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 824 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 64,478 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 32 years |
| Hail | 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
Severe Storm 16
Flood 9
Hurricane 3
Biological 2
Tropical Storm 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
Snowstorm 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Orleans County's record, 48% 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 - 27 81.8%
of all 33 declarations
Emergency - 6 18.2%
of all 33 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 5 | |
| 2023 | 3 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2018 | 2 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 2 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 3 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
Show 6 earlier declaration years
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 33 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 33 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4826 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2024-09-26 |
| 4810 | SEVERE STORM, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-08-20 |
| 3609 | TROPICAL DEPRESSION DEBBY | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-08-08 |
| 4770 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-04-19 |
| 4762 | SEVERE STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-03-02 |
| 4720 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2023-07-14 |
| 3595 | FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2023-07-10 |
| 4695 | SEVERE STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-03-20 |
| 3567 | TROPICAL STORM HENRI | EM | Hurricane | 2021-08-22 |
| 4532 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-08 |
| 3437 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4474 | SEVERE STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2020-01-17 |
| 4380 | SEVERE STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2018-07-30 |
| 4356 | SEVERE STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2018-01-02 |
| 4207 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-02-03 |
| 4178 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2014-06-11 |
| 4163 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2014-01-29 |
| 4140 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2013-08-02 |
| 4066 | SEVERE STORM, TORNADO, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2012-06-22 |
| 4022 | TROPICAL STORM IRENE | DR | Hurricane | 2011-09-01 |
Show 13 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3338 | HURRICANE IRENE | EM | Hurricane | 2011-08-29 |
| 1995 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-06-15 |
| 1715 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-08-03 |
| 1559 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-09-23 |
| 1428 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-07-12 |
| 3167 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2001-04-10 |
| 1307 | TROPICAL STORM FLOYD | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-11-10 |
| 1228 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-06-30 |
| 1184 | EXCESSIVE RAINFALL, HIGH WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1997-07-25 |
| 1101 | ICE JAMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1996-02-13 |
| 1063 | EXCESSIVE RAINFALL, FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-08-16 |
| 518 | SEVERE STORMS, HIGH WINDS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1976-08-05 |
| 397 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, & LANDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 1973-07-06 |
Storm Events in Vermont
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Orleans County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Weather | 882 | 7 | 0 | $2.8M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 694 | 3 | 4 | $7.1M |
| Winter Storm | 646 | 1 | 0 | $5.0M |
| Strong Wind | 352 | 0 | 0 | $5.7M |
| Flash Flood | 170 | 5 | 1 | $190.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
102
Total Paid
$2.6M
Avg Per Claim
$25.7K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 36.8/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$11.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Landslide Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Avalanche Very Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Hail 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: Landslide
Landslide risk is a function of slope, soil and water, so it is usually a SECOND-ORDER hazard: it is triggered by the rainfall, snowmelt, wildfire burn scars or seismic shaking that came first. That is why a county can carry high landslide exposure whose realized damage is recorded under a flood or storm declaration instead.
Worth noting for Orleans County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Landslide carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Low), 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
Orleans County's closest FEMA peer: Nelson County, ND
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Orleans County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Orleans County shows 33 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Orleans County: 27 of 33 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Orleans County: NRI composite 36.8 (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 Orleans County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Orleans 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: 36.8 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 33. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Orleans County's NFIP claims file (102 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 Orleans County?
The most common disaster type in Orleans County is Severe Storm, with 16 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (9), Hurricane (3), Biological (2).
How does Orleans County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Vermont average?
FEMA lists 33 declaration records for Orleans County. That is 15% above the Vermont county mean of 28.8. Its count is also 59% above 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 Orleans County received?
Orleans County has received 27 major disaster declarations, representing 82% of all 33 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Orleans County filed?
Orleans County has 102 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $2.6M in payments, with an average of $25.7K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Orleans County?
No. In Orleans County, Landslide has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $9.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Orleans County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Orleans County was 2024, with 5 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Orleans County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Orleans County, Vermont has an overall risk score of 36.8 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Low and community resilience is Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $11.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Orleans County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Orleans County as of the latest release is Landslide (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate) and Hurricane (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts landslide here at roughly once every 1 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 Orleans County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Vermont profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events