FEMA Records
27
High volume
Washington · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Pacific County, WA
27 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 27
- FEMA declarations
- 25
- Major disasters
- 93
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Pacific County. Its 27 FEMA declarations are 9% above the Washington county mean and exceed the count for 78% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 7%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 7%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 27
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 216
- 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 53049 · Pacific County 27 declarations · rank 651/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 27
- MAJOR-HEAVY 93%
- RANK-MID #651
- PHOTO-FINISH Greene
- NRI-MID 93
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +9%
Nearest declaration peer: Greene, MO (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Washington state profile
Pacific County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Pacific County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Coal · near 27
Coal · near
27 declarations
- Greene · near 27
Greene · near
27 declarations
- Pacific · this county 27
Pacific · this county
27 declarations
- Warren · near 27
Warren · near
27 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Pacific County carries 27 FEMA declaration records, ranked 651 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Pacific County ranks in the national declaration registry
Pacific County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Pacific County
27 Top 22% higher than 78% 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
Pacific County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Pacific County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 216 paid claims, totaling $4.1M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $19.2K 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. Pacific County's 27 federal records stand 9% above the Washington county mean of 24.9. 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 92.7/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $106.4M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively High and community resilience Relatively High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Tsunami stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 8 years here, based on 28 historical events on record.
75 /100
Historical Activity Index
Very High historical activity
Pacific County, WA · 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) High
20/30
27 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.3x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
14/25
27 declarations (1.1x state county average of 25)
Major Disaster Share Very High
23/25
25 of 27 declarations are major disasters (93%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Pacific County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Pacific 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
93%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
93
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Pacific 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tsunami | Very High | roughly once every 8 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 70 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | an average of 4.4 times per year |
| Coastal Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 6.6 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 2.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 36,759 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 19 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 7.5 times per year |
| Drought | Very Low | 1.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 99 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 18 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 53 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 5 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 73 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 11
Severe Storm 10
Biological 2
Coastal Storm 1
Earthquake 1
Fishing Losses 1
Volcanic Eruption 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Pacific County's record, 41% of its declarations. Federal flood declarations cover two mechanisms that behave very differently: riverine flooding, which builds over days as a watershed drains and is usually forecast well in advance, and flash flooding, which can arrive in under an hour from rainfall that fell somewhere upstream.
Flood is also the one hazard class where a second federal dataset exists for the same events. The National Flood Insurance Program records what was actually paid on insured losses, so it measures a narrower thing than the declaration count: uninsured damage, and flooding outside mapped special flood hazard areas, never enters it. Reading the two together is more informative than either alone.
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 - 25 92.6%
of all 27 declarations
Emergency - 2 7.4%
of all 27 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 2 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 2 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
Show 7 earlier declaration years
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1987 | 1 | |
| 1980 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 27 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 27 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4906 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2026-04-07 |
| 4775 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-04-28 |
| 4650 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, SNOWSTORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2022-03-29 |
| 4593 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2021-04-08 |
| 4539 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2020-04-23 |
| 4481 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-22 |
| 3427 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4418 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, MUDSLIDES, TORNADO | DR | Severe Storm | 2019-03-04 |
| 4253 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, MUDSLIDES, AND A T | DR | Flood | 2016-02-02 |
| 1825 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND RECORD AND NEAR RECORD SNOW | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-03-02 |
| 1817 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, LANDSLIDES, MUDSLIDES, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2009-01-30 |
| 1734 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-12-08 |
| 1682 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-02-14 |
| 1671 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-12-12 |
| 1641 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, TIDAL SURGE, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-05-17 |
| 3227 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-07 |
| 1361 | EARTHQUAKE | DR | Earthquake | 2001-03-01 |
| 1172 | HEAVY RAINS, SNOW MELT, FLOODING, LAND & MUD SLIDES | DR | Flood | 1997-04-02 |
| 1159 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, LAND & MUDS SLIDES,FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-17 |
| 1079 | SEVERE STORMS, HIGH WIND, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-01-03 |
Show 7 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1037 | THE EL NINO (THE SALMON INDUSTRY) | DR | Fishing Losses | 1994-08-02 |
| 883 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1990-11-26 |
| 784 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-12-15 |
| 623 | VOLCANIC ERUPTION, MT. ST. HELENS | DR | Volcanic Eruption | 1980-05-21 |
| 545 | SEVERE STORMS,MUDSLIDES, & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1977-12-10 |
| 322 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-02-01 |
| 185 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1964-12-29 |
Storm Events in Washington
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Pacific County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy Snow | 1,700 | 5 | 7 | $2.3M |
| High Wind | 614 | 15 | 6 | $1.1B |
| Wildfire | 299 | 4 | 4 | $1.8B |
| Winter Weather | 259 | 9 | 62 | $1.1M |
| Flood | 231 | 4 | 0 | $391.2M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
216
Total Paid
$4.1M
Avg Per Claim
$19.2K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 92.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$106.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Tsunami Very High
Earthquake Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Coastal Flooding Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Avalanche Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Drought Very Low
Volcanic Activity Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Hail 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: Tsunami
Tsunami exposure is narrow but severe, confined to low-lying coast and dependent on distant seismic events. It is the hazard where the gap between how rarely it occurs and how much it would cost is widest.
Worth noting for Pacific County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Tsunami carries the highest modeled rating (Very High), while the county's declaration history is led by Flood. 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
Pacific County's closest FEMA peer: Edwards County, KS
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Pacific County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Pacific County shows 27 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Pacific County: 25 of 27 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Pacific County: NRI composite 92.7 (Relatively Moderate).
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 Pacific County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Pacific 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: 92.7 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 27. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Pacific County's NFIP claims file (216 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 Pacific County?
The most common disaster type in Pacific County is Flood, with 11 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (10), Biological (2), Coastal Storm (1).
How does Pacific County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Washington average?
FEMA lists 27 declaration records for Pacific County. That is 9% above the Washington county mean of 24.9. Its count is also 30% 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 Pacific County received?
Pacific County has received 25 major disaster declarations, representing 93% of all 27 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Pacific County filed?
Pacific County has 216 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $4.1M in payments, with an average of $19.2K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Pacific County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Pacific County was 2020, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Pacific County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Pacific County, Washington has an overall risk score of 92.7 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively High, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $106.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Pacific County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Pacific County as of the latest release is Tsunami (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Earthquake (Relatively Moderate) and Landslide (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts tsunami here at roughly once every 8 years, drawn from 28 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Pacific County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Washington profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events