FEMA Records
26
High volume
Minnesota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Roseau County, MN
26 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 26
- FEMA declarations
- 24
- Major disasters
- 44
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Roseau County. Its 26 FEMA declarations are 47% above the Minnesota county mean and exceed the count for 75% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 44%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 44%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 26
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 279
- 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 27135 · Roseau County 26 declarations · rank 770/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 26
- MAJOR-HEAVY 92%
- RANK-MID #770
- PHOTO-FINISH Hunterdon
- NRI-LOW 44
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +47%
Nearest declaration peer: Hunterdon, NJ (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Minnesota state profile
Roseau County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Roseau County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Hunterdon · near 26
Hunterdon · near
26 declarations
- Pierce · near 26
Pierce · near
26 declarations
- Roseau · this county 26
Roseau · this county
26 declarations
- San Sebastián · near 26
San Sebastián · near
26 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Roseau County carries 26 FEMA declaration records, ranked 770 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Roseau County ranks in the national declaration registry
Roseau County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Roseau 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
Roseau County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Roseau County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $10.2M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Wildfire carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). 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 Roseau County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 279 paid claims, totaling $3.4M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $12.2K 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. Roseau County's 26 federal records stand 47% 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
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 43.9/100 for this county (Relatively Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Relatively Low (roughly $15.7M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively Low) and community resilience (Relatively High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Wildfire carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 96 years here.
73 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Roseau 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) High
19/30
26 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.3x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
18/25
26 declarations (1.5x state county average of 18)
Major Disaster Share Very High
23/25
24 of 26 declarations are major disasters (92%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Roseau County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Roseau 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
92%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
44
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Roseau 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 Moderate | roughly once every 96 years |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 21 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 19 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 21 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 26 times per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.8 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 14,493 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 16
Severe Storm 6
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Roseau County's record, 62% 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 - 24 92.3%
of all 26 declarations
Emergency - 2 7.7%
of all 26 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 2 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
Show 9 earlier declaration years
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1970 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
| 1968 | 1 | |
| 1966 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4722 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2023-07-19 |
| 4659 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2022-07-13 |
| 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 |
| 1830 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-04-09 |
| 1648 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2006-06-05 |
| 3242 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1419 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-06-14 |
| 1370 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Flood | 2001-05-16 |
| 1333 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-06-27 |
| 1288 | SEVERE ICE STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 1999-08-26 |
| 1175 | SEVERE FLOODING, HIGH WINDS,SEVERE STORMS | DR | Flood | 1997-04-08 |
| 1158 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-16 |
| 1116 | FLOODING AND SEVERE STORMS | DR | Flood | 1996-06-01 |
| 993 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1993-06-11 |
| 582 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1979-04-30 |
| 476 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1975-07-17 |
Show 6 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 440 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1974-06-10 |
| 291 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1970-07-22 |
| 255 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-04-18 |
| 250 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1968-09-09 |
| 215 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1966-03-22 |
| 188 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1965-04-11 |
Storm Events in Minnesota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Roseau 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
279
Total Paid
$3.4M
Avg Per Claim
$12.2K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 43.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$15.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Earthquake 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: 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 Roseau County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Wildfire 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
Roseau County's closest FEMA peer: Cavalier County, ND
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Roseau County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Roseau County shows 26 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Roseau County: 24 of 26 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Roseau County: NRI composite 43.9 (Relatively 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 Roseau County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Roseau 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: 43.9 (Relatively Low).
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
Roseau County's NFIP claims file (279 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 Roseau County?
The most common disaster type in Roseau County is Flood, with 16 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (6), Biological (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Roseau County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Minnesota average?
FEMA lists 26 declaration records for Roseau County. That is 47% above the Minnesota county mean of 17.7. 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 Roseau County received?
Roseau County has received 24 major disaster declarations, representing 92% of all 26 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Roseau County filed?
Roseau County has 279 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $3.4M in payments, with an average of $12.2K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Roseau County?
No. In Roseau County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $10.2M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Roseau County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Roseau County was 1997, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Roseau County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Roseau County, Minnesota has an overall risk score of 43.9 out of 100 (Relatively Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $15.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Roseau County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Roseau County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Moderate) and Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 96 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 Roseau County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Minnesota profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events