FEMA Records
23
Above median
California · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Plumas County, CA
23 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 23
- FEMA declarations
- 15
- Major disasters
- 86
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Plumas 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 19% below the California county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 14%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 14%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 23
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 57
- 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 06063 · Plumas County 23 declarations · rank 1178/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 23
- MAJOR-MID 65%
- RANK-LOWER #1,178
- PHOTO-FINISH Roanoke
- NRI-MID 86
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -19%
Nearest declaration peer: Roanoke, VA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · California state profile
Plumas County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Plumas County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Amherst · near 23
Amherst · near
23 declarations
- Plumas · this county 23
Plumas · this county
23 declarations
- Roanoke · near 23
Roanoke · near
23 declarations
- Vance · near 23
Vance · near
23 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Plumas County carries 23 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1178 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Plumas County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Plumas County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Plumas County
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 · 2026-08-25
Plumas County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Plumas County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $21.8M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Wildfire carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High). 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 Plumas County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 57 paid claims, totaling $1.1M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $19.9K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a California county averages 28.5 federal declaration records, while Plumas County has 23. The gap is 19% 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 86.4/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $41.1M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very High and community resilience Relatively High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Wildfire stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 90 years here.
58 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Plumas County, CA · 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
10/25
23 declarations (0.8x state county average of 29)
Major Disaster Share High
16/25
15 of 23 declarations are major disasters (65%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Plumas County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Plumas 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
65%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
86
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Plumas 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively High | roughly once every 90 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 23 years |
| Volcanic Activity | Relatively Low | roughly once every 476 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | an average of 6.9 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 14 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 35 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 63 modeled event-days per year |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 2.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 15 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 7
Severe Storm 6
Fire 6
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Plumas County's record, 30% 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 - 15 65.2%
of all 23 declarations
Emergency - 6 26.1%
of all 23 declarations
Fire Management - 2 8.7%
of all 23 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 4 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 2 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1970 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1965 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4699 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-04-03 |
| 3592 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | EM | Flood | 2023-03-10 |
| 4610 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2021-08-24 |
| 5400 | DIXIE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2021-07-20 |
| 5363 | BEAR FIRE | FM | Fire | 2020-09-09 |
| 4558 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2020-08-22 |
| 4482 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-22 |
| 3428 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4308 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2017-04-01 |
| 4301 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2017-02-14 |
| 3287 | WILDFIRES | EM | Fire | 2008-06-28 |
| 1628 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, MUDSLIDES, AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-02-03 |
| 3248 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 3140 | CA-WILDFIRES-08/25/1999 | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
| 1155 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, MUD AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-04 |
| 1046 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING LANDSLIDES, MUD FLOW | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-03-12 |
| 1044 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, MUD FLOWS | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-01-10 |
| 979 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, MUD & LAND SLIDES, & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-02-03 |
| 758 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-02-21 |
| 3023 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-01-20 |
Show 3 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 283 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1970-02-16 |
| 253 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-01-26 |
| 183 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1964-12-24 |
Storm Events in California
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Plumas County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 4,070 | 13 | 27 | $228.2M |
| Flood | 3,132 | 26 | 25 | $985.1M |
| Heavy Snow | 1,814 | 6 | 0 | $1.6M |
| Dense Fog | 1,605 | 52 | 148 | $2.8M |
| Drought | 1,421 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
57
Total Paid
$1.1M
Avg Per Claim
$19.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 86.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$41.1M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Moderate
Volcanic Activity Relatively Low
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Low
Avalanche Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Hail Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Cold Wave 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: Wildfire
Wildfire risk in the model reflects fuel, terrain, weather and how much development sits in the wildland-urban interface. It is one of the few hazards where the exposure is materially changed by land management and building choices, not only by where the county happens to be.
Worth noting for Plumas County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Wildfire 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
Plumas County's closest FEMA peer: Cumberland County, VA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Plumas County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Plumas County shows 23 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Plumas County: 15 of 23 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Plumas County: NRI composite 86.4 (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 Plumas County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Plumas 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: 86.4 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 23. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Plumas County's NFIP claims file (57 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 Plumas County?
The most common disaster type in Plumas County is Flood, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (6), Fire (6), Biological (2).
How does Plumas County's FEMA declaration record compare with the California average?
The typical California county has 28.5 FEMA declaration records; Plumas County has 23, or 19% 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 Plumas County received?
Plumas County has received 15 major disaster declarations, representing 65% of all 23 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Plumas County filed?
Plumas County has 57 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $1.1M in payments, with an average of $19.9K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Plumas County?
No. In Plumas County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $21.8M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Plumas County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Plumas County was 2020, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Plumas County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Plumas County, California has an overall risk score of 86.4 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). On social vulnerability the county rates Very High; on community resilience, Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $41.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Plumas County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Plumas County is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Earthquake (Relatively Moderate) and Volcanic Activity (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 90 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 Plumas County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · California profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events