FEMA Records
14
Low volume
Montana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Park County, MT
14 FEMA disaster declarations (1996-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 14
- FEMA declarations
- 11
- Major disasters
- 66
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Park County. Its 14 FEMA declarations are 27% above the Montana county mean and exceed the count for 20% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 34%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 34%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 14
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 141
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Fire Management Assistance (FM) records, which are not presidential disaster declarations, alongside Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 30067 · Park County 14 declarations · rank 2599/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 14
- MAJOR-MID 79%
- RANK-LOWER #2,599
- PHOTO-FINISH Pulaski
- NRI-LOW 66
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +27%
Nearest declaration peer: Pulaski, IL (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Montana state profile
Park County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Park County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Franklin (city) · near 14
Franklin (city) · near
14 declarations
- Harris · near 14
Harris · near
14 declarations
- Park · this county 14
Park · this county
14 declarations
- Pulaski · near 14
Pulaski · near
14 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Park County carries 14 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2599 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Park County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Park County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Park County
14 20th percentile higher than 20% 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
Park County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Park County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 141 paid claims, totaling $3.3M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $23.3K 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. Park County's 14 federal records stand 27% above the Montana county mean of 11.0. 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 carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 66.3/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $27.8M in annualized losses), and a Relatively Low social-vulnerability profile combined with Very High community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Avalanche stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 1 years here, based on 20 historical events on record.
61 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Park County, MT · 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
10/30
14 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
16/25
14 declarations (1.3x state county average of 11)
Major Disaster Share Very High
20/25
11 of 14 declarations are major disasters (79%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Park County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Park 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
79%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
66
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Park 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Avalanche | Very High | roughly once every 1 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.6 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 431 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 22 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 52 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.3 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 39 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 70 modeled event-days per year |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 10,000 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 20 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 5
Severe Storm 3
Biological 2
Fire 2
Straight-Line Winds 1
Hurricane 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Park County's record, 36% 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 - 11 78.6%
of all 14 declarations
Emergency - 2 14.3%
of all 14 declarations
Fire Management - 1 7.1%
of all 14 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 2 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 14 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 14 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4902 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Straight-Line Winds | 2026-04-07 |
| 4726 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2023-08-12 |
| 4655 | SEVERE STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2022-06-16 |
| 4508 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-31 |
| 3476 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4437 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-05-24 |
| 4405 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2018-10-31 |
| 4172 | ICE JAMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2014-04-17 |
| 1996 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-06-17 |
| 3253 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1340 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2000-08-30 |
| 2321 | MT - SOUTH CENTRAL ZONE 4 FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2000-08-16 |
| 1183 | SEVERE STORMS,ICE JAMS, SNOW MELT, FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-07-25 |
| 1105 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND ICE JAMS | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-02-23 |
Storm Events in Montana
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Park County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 3,735 | 1 | 2 | $5.3M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 2,396 | 5 | 24 | $15.1M |
| Hail | 2,015 | 0 | 0 | $4.1M |
| Winter Storm | 1,502 | 13 | 18 | $11.2M |
| Heavy Snow | 796 | 5 | 3 | $143.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
141
Total Paid
$3.3M
Avg Per Claim
$23.3K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 66.3/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$27.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Avalanche Very High
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Drought Very Low
Volcanic Activity Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Tornado 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: Avalanche
Avalanche is the most geographically restricted hazard in the model, limited to steep terrain holding seasonal snow. Its exposure concentrates on mountain roads, rail corridors and backcountry recreation rather than on the built environment generally.
Worth noting for Park County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Avalanche 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
Park County's closest FEMA peer: Kosciusko County, IN
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Park County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Park County: NRI composite 66.3 (Relatively Low).
Similar Major-disaster share
Park County: 11 of 14 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Park County shows 14 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
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 Park County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Park 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: 66.3 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 14. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Park County's NFIP claims file (141 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 Park County?
The most common disaster type in Park County is Flood, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (3), Biological (2), Fire (2).
How does Park County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Montana average?
FEMA lists 14 declaration records for Park County. That is 27% above the Montana county mean of 11.0. Its count is also 32% 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 Park County received?
Park County has received 11 major disaster declarations, representing 79% of all 14 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Park County filed?
Park County has 141 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $3.3M in payments, with an average of $23.3K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Park County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Park County was 2000, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1996 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Park County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Park County, Montana has an overall risk score of 66.3 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Low; on community resilience, Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $27.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Park County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Park County as of the latest release is Avalanche (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Landslide (Relatively Moderate) and Wildfire (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts avalanche here at roughly once every 1 years, drawn from 20 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 Park County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Montana profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events