FEMA Records
17
Below median
Wisconsin · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Racine County, WI
17 FEMA disaster declarations (1969-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 17
- FEMA declarations
- 12
- Major disasters
- 85
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Racine County. Its 17 FEMA declarations are 38% above the Wisconsin county mean and exceed the count for 32% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 15%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 15%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 17
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 179
- 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 55101 · Racine County 17 declarations · rank 2107/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 17
- MAJOR-MID 71%
- RANK-LOWER #2,107
- PHOTO-FINISH Curry
- NRI-MID 85
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-ABOVE +38%
Nearest declaration peer: Curry, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Wisconsin state profile
Racine County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Racine County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Curry · near 17
Curry · near
17 declarations
- Murray · near 17
Murray · near
17 declarations
- Racine · this county 17
Racine · this county
17 declarations
- Washington · near 17
Washington · near
17 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Racine County carries 17 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2107 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Racine County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Racine County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Racine County
17 32nd percentile higher than 32% 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
Racine County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Racine County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $30.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Cold Wave 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 Racine County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 179 paid claims, totaling $2.6M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $14.7K 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. Racine County's 17 federal records stand 38% above the Wisconsin county mean of 12.3. 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 85.4/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $63.8M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Low and community resilience Very High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Cold Wave stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 4.9 times per year here, based on 93 historical events on record.
60 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Racine County, WI · 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
12/30
17 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
17/25
17 declarations (1.4x state county average of 12)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
12 of 17 declarations are major disasters (71%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Racine County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Racine 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
71%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
85
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Racine 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 High | an average of 4.9 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively High | roughly once every 3 years |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.4 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 3.9 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.6 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 35 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 3.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 16 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1,280 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 4.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 20 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 12,120 years |
| Coastal Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 70 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 174 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 6
Flood 4
Snowstorm 4
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Racine County's record, 35% of its declarations. In FEMA's vocabulary this covers convective weather: thunderstorm straight-line winds, large hail, and the multi-day outbreaks that often carry embedded tornadoes. Activity is heaviest in spring and summer, though the season varies by region.
These events behave differently from a hurricane on paper. Damage tends to be distributed along a storm track rather than concentrated on a coastline, and a declaration typically follows an outbreak that crossed several counties over a few days, not a single point of impact. Because the qualifying threshold is the cost of uninsured public and individual losses rather than storm intensity, two similar storms can produce a declaration in one year and none in another.
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 - 12 70.6%
of all 17 declarations
Emergency - 5 29.4%
of all 17 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 17 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 17 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4923 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2026-06-30 |
| 4520 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-04 |
| 3454 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4477 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2020-03-11 |
| 1966 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2011-04-05 |
| 1768 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-06-14 |
| 3285 | RECORD SNOW AND NEAR RECORD SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2008-03-19 |
| 1719 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-08-26 |
| 3249 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1526 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-06-18 |
| 3163 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2001-01-24 |
| 1332 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-06-24 |
| 1238 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-12 |
| 994 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1993-07-02 |
| 3069 | BLIZZARDS & SNOWSTORMS | EM | Snowstorm | 1979-01-19 |
| 376 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-04-27 |
| 264 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-07-11 |
Storm Events in Wisconsin
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Racine County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 3,504 | 5 | 23 | $45.0M |
| Hail | 2,620 | 0 | 0 | $57.8M |
| Winter Weather | 1,939 | 43 | 152 | $2.1M |
| Winter Storm | 1,338 | 15 | 86 | $2.3M |
| Flood | 740 | 12 | 4 | $115.6M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
179
Total Paid
$2.6M
Avg Per Claim
$14.7K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 85.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$63.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Relatively High
Tornado Relatively High
Hail Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively High
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively High
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Coastal Flooding Very Low
Hurricane 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 Racine County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively High), while the county's declaration history is led by Severe Storm. 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
Racine County's closest FEMA peer: Colleton County, SC
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Racine County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Racine County: NRI composite 85.4 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar Major-disaster share
Racine County: 12 of 17 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Racine County shows 17 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
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 Racine County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Racine 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: 85.4 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 17. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Racine County's NFIP claims file (179 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 Racine County?
The most common disaster type in Racine County is Severe Storm, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (4), Snowstorm (4), Biological (2).
How does Racine County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Wisconsin average?
FEMA lists 17 declaration records for Racine County. That is 38% above the Wisconsin county mean of 12.3. Its count is also 18% 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 Racine County received?
Racine County has received 12 major disaster declarations, representing 71% of all 17 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Racine County filed?
Racine County has 179 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $2.6M in payments, with an average of $14.7K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Racine County?
No. In Racine County, Cold Wave has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $30.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Racine County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Racine County was 2020, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1969 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Racine County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Racine County, Wisconsin has an overall risk score of 85.4 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Low and community resilience is Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $63.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Racine County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Racine County as of the latest release is Cold Wave (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Tornado (Relatively High) and Hail (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 4.9 times per year, drawn from 93 historical events on record. 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 Racine County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Wisconsin profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events