FEMA Records
18
Below median
California · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
San Benito County, CA
18 FEMA disaster declarations (1969-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 18
- FEMA declarations
- 13
- Major disasters
- 85
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
San Benito County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 18 declarations, more than 37% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 37% below the California county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 15%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 15%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 18
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 129
- 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 06069 · San Benito County 18 declarations · rank 2042/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 18
- MAJOR-MID 72%
- RANK-LOWER #2,042
- PHOTO-FINISH Monroe
- NRI-MID 85
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -37%
Nearest declaration peer: Monroe, TN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · California state profile
San Benito County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among San Benito County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Brooke · near 18
Brooke · near
18 declarations
- Mecklenburg · near 18
Mecklenburg · near
18 declarations
- Monroe · near 18
Monroe · near
18 declarations
- San Benito · this county 18
San Benito · this county
18 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows San Benito County carries 18 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2042 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How San Benito County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
San Benito County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · San Benito County
18 37th percentile higher than 37% 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
San Benito County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for San Benito County is led by Earthquake (about $49.2M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Landslide 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 San Benito County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 129 paid claims, totaling $3.8M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $29.5K 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 San Benito County has 18. The gap is 37% 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 85.2/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $80.0M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very Low and community resilience Relatively Moderate, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Landslide carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 92 times per year here.
59 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
San Benito 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) Moderate
13/30
18 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
8/25
18 declarations (0.6x state county average of 29)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
13 of 18 declarations are major disasters (72%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in San Benito County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - San Benito 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
72%
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 San Benito 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | an average of 92 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 5 years |
| Drought | Relatively High | 104 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 118 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 8.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 3.2 times per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 9 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 10 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 39 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 1.5 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 6
Severe Storm 5
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Freezing 1
Earthquake 1
Coastal Storm 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on San Benito County's record, 33% 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 - 13 72.2%
of all 18 declarations
Emergency - 5 27.8%
of all 18 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 4 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
| 1983 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 18 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 18 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 |
| 4683 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2023-01-14 |
| 3591 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | EM | Flood | 2023-01-09 |
| 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 |
| 3248 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1203 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-02-09 |
| 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 |
| 894 | SEVERE FREEZE | DR | Freezing | 1991-02-11 |
| 845 | LOMA PRIETA EARTHQUAKE | DR | Earthquake | 1989-10-18 |
| 758 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-02-21 |
| 677 | COASTAL STORMS, FLOODS, SLIDES & TORNADOES | DR | Coastal Storm | 1983-02-09 |
| 3023 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-01-20 |
| 253 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-01-26 |
Storm Events in California
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to San Benito 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
129
Total Paid
$3.8M
Avg Per Claim
$29.5K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 85.2/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$80.0M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Lightning Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Avalanche Very Low
Hail Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Winter Weather 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: Landslide
Landslide risk is a function of slope, soil and water, so it is usually a SECOND-ORDER hazard: it is triggered by the rainfall, snowmelt, wildfire burn scars or seismic shaking that came first. That is why a county can carry high landslide exposure whose realized damage is recorded under a flood or storm declaration instead.
Worth noting for San Benito County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Landslide 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
San Benito County's closest FEMA peer: Cherokee County, GA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for San Benito County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
San Benito County: NRI composite 85.2 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar Major-disaster share
San Benito County: 13 of 18 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
San Benito County shows 18 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 San Benito County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for San Benito 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: 85.2 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 18. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
San Benito County's NFIP claims file (129 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 San Benito County?
The most common disaster type in San Benito County is Flood, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (5), Biological (2), Hurricane (1).
How does San Benito County's FEMA declaration record compare with the California average?
The typical California county has 28.5 FEMA declaration records; San Benito County has 18, or 37% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 13% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has San Benito County received?
San Benito County has received 13 major disaster declarations, representing 72% of all 18 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has San Benito County filed?
San Benito County has 129 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $3.8M in payments, with an average of $29.5K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in San Benito County?
No. In San Benito County, Landslide has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Earthquake leads Expected Annual Loss at about $49.2M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in San Benito County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in San Benito County was 2023, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1969 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for San Benito County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, San Benito County, California has an overall risk score of 85.2 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very Low and community resilience is Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $80.0M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to San Benito County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for San Benito County as of the latest release is Landslide (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Earthquake (Relatively Moderate) and Drought (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts landslide here at an average of 92 times per year. 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 San Benito County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · California profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events