FEMA Records
14
Low volume
Montana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Pondera County, MT
14 FEMA disaster declarations (1975-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 14
- FEMA declarations
- 11
- Major disasters
- 25
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Pondera 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 safer than 25%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 25%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 14
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 4
- severe storm declarations, the most common hazard here
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 30073 · Pondera County 14 declarations · rank 2594/3,266
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 #2,594
- PHOTO-FINISH Pulaski
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- 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
Pondera County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Pondera 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
- Pondera · this county 14
Pondera · this county
14 declarations
- Pulaski · near 14
Pulaski · near
14 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Pondera County carries 14 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2594 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Pondera County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Pondera County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Pondera 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
Pondera County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Pondera County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 24.6/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $5.3M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Very High social-vulnerability score and Relatively Moderate community-resilience score. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Cold Wave carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 9 times per year here, based on 170 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
No paid-claim row for this county appears in the NFIP county table used by PlainHazard. That absence is not evidence that flooding never occurred: the register observes claims under federal flood-insurance policies, not uninsured losses, emergency reports, or every flood outside the program. The FEMA declaration history below is therefore the available federal-action record on this page.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Pondera 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.
61 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Pondera 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 Pondera County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Pondera 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
25
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Pondera 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 9 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2,216 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 34 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 356 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 65 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 19 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 24 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 4
Flood 4
Biological 2
Fire 2
Straight-Line Winds 1
Hurricane 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Pondera County's record, 29% 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 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 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 |
| 4801 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-07-18 |
| 4508 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-31 |
| 3476 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4388 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2018-08-30 |
| 5212 | STRAWBERRY FIRE | FM | Fire | 2017-09-12 |
| 4271 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-05-24 |
| 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 |
| 1424 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-07-03 |
| 1340 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2000-08-30 |
| 761 | HEAVY RAINS, LANDSLIDES & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-03-15 |
| 472 | RAINS, SHOWMELT, STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-06-28 |
Storm Events in Montana
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Pondera 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
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 24.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$5.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Very Low
Drought Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Avalanche Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Hail Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Ice Storm 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: Cold Wave
Cold Wave measures exposure to extreme cold rather than to snow. Its harm is concentrated in health effects, burst infrastructure and energy demand spikes, and it falls hardest where the building stock and the grid were not built with sustained cold in mind.
Worth noting for Pondera County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave 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
Pondera County's closest FEMA peer: Jackson County, WI
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Pondera County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Pondera County shows 14 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Pondera County: 11 of 14 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Pondera County: NRI composite 24.6 (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 Pondera County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Pondera 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: 24.6 (Very 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
Most disaster-prone counties
With 14 FEMA declarations, Pondera 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).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Pondera County?
The most common disaster type in Pondera County is Flood, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (4), Biological (2), Fire (2).
How does Pondera County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Montana average?
FEMA lists 14 declaration records for Pondera 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 Pondera County received?
Pondera County has received 11 major disaster declarations, representing 79% of all 14 disaster declarations.
What was the worst year for disasters in Pondera County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Pondera County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1975 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Pondera County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Pondera County, Montana has an overall risk score of 24.6 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very High; on community resilience, Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $5.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Pondera County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Pondera County as of the latest release is Cold Wave (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Relatively Low) and Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 9 times per year, drawn from 170 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.
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 Pondera County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Montana profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events