FEMA Records
26
High volume
Washington · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Pierce County, WA
26 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively High. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 26
- FEMA declarations
- 22
- Major disasters
- 99
- NRI risk · Relatively High
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Pierce County. Its 26 FEMA declarations are 5% above the Washington county mean and exceed the count for 75% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 1%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 1%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively High
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 26
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 1,105
- 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 53053 · Pierce County 26 declarations · rank 710/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-HIGH · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 26
- MAJOR-HEAVY 85%
- RANK-MID #710
- PHOTO-FINISH Hunterdon
- NRI-HIGH 99
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +5%
Nearest declaration peer: Hunterdon, NJ (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Washington state profile
Pierce County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Pierce County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Hunterdon · near 26
Hunterdon · near
26 declarations
- Pierce · this county 26
Pierce · this county
26 declarations
- San Sebastián · near 26
San Sebastián · near
26 declarations
- Washington · near 26
Washington · near
26 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Pierce County carries 26 FEMA declaration records, ranked 710 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Pierce County ranks in the national declaration registry
Pierce County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Pierce County
26 Top 25% higher than 75% 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
Pierce County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Pierce County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 1,105 claims and $26.0M 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 $23.5K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Pierce County's 26 federal records stand 5% 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 98.5/100 (Relatively High). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively High (roughly $531.9M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very Low and community resilience Relatively High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Earthquake stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 25 years here.
71 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Pierce 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
19/30
26 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.3x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
13/25
26 declarations (1.0x state county average of 25)
Major Disaster Share Very High
21/25
22 of 26 declarations are major disasters (85%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Pierce County
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
85%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
99
Relatively High
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Earthquake | Relatively High | roughly once every 25 years |
| Volcanic Activity | Relatively High | roughly once every 81 years |
| Avalanche | Very High | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively High | 3.8 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.4 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively High | roughly once every 9 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively High | roughly once every 34 years |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 9.3 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 27 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | roughly once every 2 years |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 7,589 years |
| Coastal Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.1 times per year |
| Tsunami | Relatively Low | roughly once every 18 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | roughly once every 78 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 14 years |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 37 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 3.4 modeled event-days per year |
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 8
Biological 2
Earthquake 2
Fire 1
Coastal Storm 1
Volcanic Eruption 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Pierce County's record, 42% 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 - 22 84.6%
of all 26 declarations
Emergency - 3 11.5%
of all 26 declarations
Fire Management - 1 3.8%
of all 26 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 2 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 2 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1987 | 1 | |
| 1980 | 1 | |
Show 3 earlier declaration years
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 2 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 26 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 26 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 |
| 3629 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | EM | Flood | 2025-12-12 |
| 5360 | SUMNER GRADE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2020-09-09 |
| 4481 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-22 |
| 3427 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4056 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2012-03-05 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 3227 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-07 |
| 1499 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-11-07 |
| 1361 | EARTHQUAKE | DR | Earthquake | 2001-03-01 |
| 1159 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, LAND & MUDS SLIDES,FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-17 |
| 1100 | HIGH WINDS, SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1996-02-09 |
| 1079 | SEVERE STORMS, HIGH WIND, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-01-03 |
| 981 | SEVERE STORMS & HIGH WIND | DR | Severe Storm | 1993-03-04 |
| 896 | SEVERE STORMS & HIGH TIDES | DR | Flood | 1991-03-08 |
| 883 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1990-11-26 |
| 852 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1990-01-18 |
Show 6 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 328 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-03-24 |
| 196 | EARTHQUAKE | DR | Earthquake | 1965-05-11 |
| 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 Pierce 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
1,105
Total Paid
$26.0M
Avg Per Claim
$23.5K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively High
Score: 98.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively High
$531.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Earthquake Relatively High
Volcanic Activity Relatively High
Avalanche Very High
Heat Wave Relatively High
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively High
Cold Wave Relatively High
Lightning Relatively High
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Low
Coastal Flooding Relatively Moderate
Tsunami Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Hail Very Low
Drought 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: Earthquake
Earthquake is the model's clearest example of a hazard with no season and no warning. Its expected loss is driven less by how often shaking occurs than by how much of the building stock predates modern seismic codes, so exposure can be high in places where nothing has happened for a long time.
Worth noting for Pierce County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Earthquake carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively 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
Pierce County's closest FEMA peer: Marin County, CA
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 26 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Pierce County: 22 of 26 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Pierce County: NRI composite 98.5 (Relatively High).
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.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Pierce 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: 98.5 (Relatively High).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 26. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Pierce County's NFIP claims file (1,105 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 Pierce County?
The most common disaster type in Pierce County is Flood, with 11 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (8), Biological (2), Earthquake (2).
How does Pierce County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Washington average?
FEMA lists 26 declaration records for Pierce County. That is 5% above the Washington county mean of 24.9. Its count is also 25% 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 Pierce County received?
Pierce County has received 22 major disaster declarations, representing 85% of all 26 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Pierce County filed?
Pierce County has 1,105 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $26.0M in payments, with an average of $23.5K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Pierce County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Pierce 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 Pierce County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Pierce County, Washington has an overall risk score of 98.5 out of 100 (Relatively High). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively High, representing $531.9M 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 Earthquake (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Volcanic Activity (Relatively High) and Avalanche (Very High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts earthquake here at roughly once every 25 years. 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Pierce County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Washington profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events