FEMA Records
23
Above median
North Dakota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Pierce County, ND
23 FEMA disaster declarations (1969-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 23
- FEMA declarations
- 21
- Major disasters
- 3
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Pierce County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 23 declarations, more than 62% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 11% below the North Dakota county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 3%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 3%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 23
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 10
- 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 Pierce County compare?
Pierce County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
23 Top 38% higher than 62% 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
Pierce County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the North Dakota county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Pierce County is led by Cold Wave (about $1.9M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Winter Weather carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). 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 Pierce County's hazard record show?
Declaration frequency
Nationally, Pierce County's 23 FEMA records form a high-volume history; within North Dakota, however, the count is 11% below the county mean. 21 entries carry the Major Disaster classification. The largest incident group is Flood, appearing 10 times. The full 51-year record averages 0.5 declarations annually. A DR label alone does not say whether Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, or both followed.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits at the very bottom of FEMA's National Risk Index nationally, a composite score of 3.2/100 (rated Very Low). Projected losses are minimal, Expected Annual Loss reads Very Low (roughly $3.4M in annualized losses), and the county's exposure is shaped by a Very Low social-vulnerability profile and Relatively Moderate community resilience. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Winter Weather carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 21 times per year here, based on 399 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 10 claims and $55.8K paid in total. PlainHazard calls 1-49 claims a light registry record, a label for this dataset rather than a finding that flood exposure is low. A short claims history can also reflect insurance take-up, the period covered, or losses that were never insured.
Start with the state benchmark: a North Dakota county averages 25.9 federal declaration records, while Pierce County has 23. The gap is 11% 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.
64 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Pierce County, ND · 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
17/30
23 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.1x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
23 declarations (0.9x state county average of 26)
Major Disaster Share Very High
23/25
21 of 23 declarations are major disasters (91%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Pierce County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. North Dakota Avg
-11%
State avg: 25.9
vs. National Avg
+11%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.5
Over 51 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Pierce 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
91%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
3
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Pierce 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 21 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 22 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 843 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 2.3 times per year |
| Drought | Very Low | 14 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.8 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 26 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 11,628 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 10
Severe Storm 9
Biological 2
Snowstorm 1
Coastal Storm 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Pierce County's record, 43% 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 - 21 91.3%
of all 23 declarations
Emergency - 2 8.7%
of all 23 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 2 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
Show 5 earlier declaration years
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 23 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 23 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4509 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-01 |
| 3477 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4323 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2017-07-12 |
| 4190 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2014-08-19 |
| 4128 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2013-07-12 |
| 1981 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2011-05-10 |
| 1829 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-03-24 |
| 1616 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND RECORD AND/OR NEAR RECORD SNOW | DR | Snowstorm | 2005-11-21 |
| 3247 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-13 |
| 1597 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND GROUND SATURATION | DR | Severe Storm | 2005-07-22 |
| 1515 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND GROUND SATURATION | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-05-05 |
| 1376 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, & GROUND SATURATION | DR | Flood | 2001-05-28 |
| 1334 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING AND GROUND SATURATION | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-06-27 |
| 1279 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, SNOW, ICE, GROUND SATURATION, LANSLIDES, MUDSLIDES, AND TOR | DR | Flood | 1999-06-08 |
| 1220 | FLOODING, GROUND SATURATION,SEVERE STORMS | DR | Flood | 1998-06-15 |
| 1174 | SEVERE FLOODING,SEVERE WINTER STORMS, SNOWMELT, SPRING RAINS | DR | Flood | 1997-04-07 |
| 1157 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND BLIZZARD CONDITIONS | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-12 |
| 1118 | SEVERE STORMS,FLOODING, & ICE JAMS | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-06-05 |
| 1050 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND GROUND SATURATION | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-05-16 |
| 1032 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-07-01 |
Show 3 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 581 | SEVERE STORMS, SNOWMELT & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1979-04-26 |
| 434 | HEAVY RAINS, SNOWMELT & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1974-05-14 |
| 256 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-04-18 |
Storm Events in North Dakota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Pierce County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 2,705 | 0 | 2 | $116.1M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 2,459 | 2 | 10 | $67.0M |
| High Wind | 1,184 | 1 | 1 | $2.9M |
| Heavy Snow | 925 | 0 | 3 | $650.0K |
| Blizzard | 905 | 2 | 2 | $60.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
10
Total Paid
$55.8K
Avg Per Claim
$5.6K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 3.2/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$3.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Hail Very Low
Drought Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Earthquake 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: Winter Weather
Winter Weather in the model means the accumulation of snow and cold that disrupts rather than destroys: road closures, roof loads, burst pipes and lost heating. Its costs land heavily on transport and on households least able to absorb an interruption.
Worth noting for Pierce County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Winter Weather carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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
Pierce County's closest FEMA peer: Howard County, IA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Pierce County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Pierce County shows 23 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Pierce County: 21 of 23 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Pierce County: NRI composite 3.2 (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 Pierce County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 23 FEMA declarations, Pierce County sits in the high-volume declaration band - see how that count ranks against other U.S. counties.
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 Pierce County?
The most common disaster type in Pierce County is Flood, with 10 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (9), Biological (2), Snowstorm (1).
How does Pierce County's FEMA declaration record compare with the North Dakota average?
The typical North Dakota county has 25.9 FEMA declaration records; Pierce County has 23, or 11% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 11% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Pierce County received?
Pierce County has received 21 major disaster declarations, representing 91% of all 23 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Pierce County filed?
Pierce County has 10 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $55.8K in payments, with an average of $5.6K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Pierce County?
No. In Pierce County, Winter Weather has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Cold Wave leads Expected Annual Loss at about $1.9M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Pierce County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Pierce County was 1997, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1969 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Pierce County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Pierce County, North Dakota has an overall risk score of 3.2 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $3.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Pierce County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Pierce County is Winter Weather (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Cold Wave (Relatively Low) and Wildfire (Very Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts winter weather here at an average of 21 times per year, drawn from 399 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.
What this means for Pierce County
Against a North Dakota county mean of 26 declarations, Pierce County, ND records 23, or 11% fewer. PlainHazard classifies that historical total as high activity.
- Major Disaster is the largest group (21 of 23) in a declaration history that remains below its state benchmark; frequency here is not a forecast. North Dakota overview
- Nationally the county exceeds 62% of recorded county totals, but its own North Dakota benchmark is higher. The ranking keeps those two contexts separate. Most-disaster rankings
- A short NFIP claims file cannot establish low flood exposure; the data guide explains the limits of each federal measure. 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.