FEMA Records
19
Below median
Minnesota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Ramsey County, MN
19 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively High. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 19
- FEMA declarations
- 15
- Major disasters
- 95
- NRI risk · Relatively High
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Ramsey County. Its 19 FEMA declarations are 7% above the Minnesota county mean and exceed the count for 41% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 5%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 5%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively High
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 19
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 145
- 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 Ramsey County compare?
Ramsey County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
19 41st percentile higher than 41% 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
Ramsey County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Minnesota county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Ramsey County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $68.5M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Cold Wave carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Very 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 Ramsey County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 145 paid claims, totaling $1.3M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $9.3K 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. Ramsey County's 19 federal records stand 7% above the Minnesota county mean of 17.7. 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 94.6/100 (Relatively High). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $181.4M 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 Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 8.8 times per year here, based on 168 historical events on record.
Declaration frequency
The FEMA register is busy by both local and national comparisons. It contains 19 entries for Ramsey County, including 15 Major Disaster records, 7% above the Minnesota county mean. Across the 55-year span, that works out to 0.3 declarations a year. Flood leads the file with 9 entries. Declaration type records the federal action taken, not every assistance program approved.
62 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Ramsey County, MN · 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
14/30
19 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
13/25
19 declarations (1.1x state county average of 18)
Major Disaster Share Very High
20/25
15 of 19 declarations are major disasters (79%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Ramsey County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Minnesota Avg
+7%
State avg: 17.7
vs. National Avg
-8%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.3
Over 55 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Ramsey 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
95
Relatively High
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Ramsey 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 | Very High | an average of 8.8 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively High | an average of 6.3 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively High | roughly once every 8 years |
| Landslide | Relatively High | roughly once every 17 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively High | 6.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively High | roughly once every 1 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 17 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 4.6 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 36 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 8,041 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 4,425 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 2.6 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 9
Severe Storm 5
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Tornado 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Ramsey County's record, 47% 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 78.9%
of all 19 declarations
Emergency - 4 21.1%
of all 19 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 2 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1987 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 19 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 19 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4531 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-07 |
| 3453 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4442 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-06-12 |
| 4182 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2014-07-21 |
| 1982 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2011-05-10 |
| 1900 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2010-04-19 |
| 3310 | FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2010-03-19 |
| 3242 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1370 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Flood | 2001-05-16 |
| 1333 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-06-27 |
| 1225 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1998-06-23 |
| 1187 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, HIGH WINDS, FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-08-25 |
| 1175 | SEVERE FLOODING, HIGH WINDS,SEVERE STORMS | DR | Flood | 1997-04-08 |
| 993 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1993-06-11 |
| 797 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1987-08-06 |
| 560 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, HAIL & TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1978-07-08 |
| 3013 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1976-06-17 |
| 255 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-04-18 |
| 188 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1965-04-11 |
Storm Events in Minnesota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Ramsey County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,420 | 13 | 25 | $68.2M |
| Hail | 4,203 | 0 | 0 | $34.5M |
| Extreme Cold/Wind Chill | 1,789 | 7 | 4 | $55.0K |
| Winter Storm | 1,695 | 2 | 17 | $10.0M |
| Heavy Snow | 1,190 | 9 | 14 | $1.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
145
Total Paid
$1.3M
Avg Per Claim
$9.3K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively High
Score: 94.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$181.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Very High
Hail Relatively High
Tornado Relatively High
Landslide Relatively High
Heat Wave Relatively High
Riverine Flooding Relatively High
Winter Weather Relatively High
Strong Wind Relatively High
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Very Low
Earthquake 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: 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 Ramsey County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave carries the highest modeled rating (Very 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
Ramsey County's closest FEMA peer: Fairfax County, VA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Ramsey County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Ramsey County: NRI composite 94.6 (Relatively High).
Similar Major-disaster share
Ramsey County: 15 of 19 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Ramsey County shows 19 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
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 Ramsey County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Ramsey County's NFIP claims file (145 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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Ramsey County?
The most common disaster type in Ramsey County is Flood, with 9 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (5), Biological (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Ramsey County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Minnesota average?
FEMA lists 19 declaration records for Ramsey County. That is 7% above the Minnesota county mean of 17.7. Its count is also 8% 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 Ramsey County received?
Ramsey County has received 15 major disaster declarations, representing 79% of all 19 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Ramsey County filed?
Ramsey County has 145 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $1.3M in payments, with an average of $9.3K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Ramsey County?
No. In Ramsey County, Cold Wave has the highest National Risk Index rating (Very High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $68.5M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Ramsey County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Ramsey County was 1997, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Ramsey County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Ramsey County, Minnesota has an overall risk score of 94.6 out of 100 (Relatively High). 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 $181.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Ramsey County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Ramsey County is Cold Wave (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively High) and Tornado (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 8.8 times per year, drawn from 168 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 Ramsey County
Ramsey County, MN has 19 federal declaration records, 7% more than the Minnesota county mean of 18; its history sits in PlainHazard's high activity band.
- Within this above-state-average declaration file, major disaster leads with 15 of 19 records; the category describes past federal action, not the next likely hazard. Minnesota overview
- The state benchmark and national rank point the same way: this count tops the Minnesota mean and the totals for 41% of 3,266 U.S. counties. Most-disaster rankings
- Use the data guide to separate this mid-volume insurance-claims file from declaration counts and modeled NRI risk. Disaster-data guide
An above-average declaration count records past federal responses; it does not predict the next event. Current warnings come from the National Weather Service and local emergency officials.
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.