FEMA Records
12
Low volume
Washington · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
San Juan County, WA
12 FEMA disaster declarations (1980-2022), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 12
- FEMA declarations
- 10
- Major disasters
- 35
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
San Juan County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 12 declarations, more than 14% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 52% below the Washington county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 35%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 35%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 12
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 9
- 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 53055 · San Juan County 12 declarations · rank 2748/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-LOW
- DECL-MID 12
- MAJOR-HEAVY 83%
- RANK-LOWER #2,748
- PHOTO-FINISH Johnson
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-LOW -52%
Nearest declaration peer: Johnson, KS (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Washington state profile
San Juan County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among San Juan County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Crane · near 12
Crane · near
12 declarations
- Johnson · near 12
Johnson · near
12 declarations
- San Juan · this county 12
San Juan · this county
12 declarations
- Seward · near 12
Seward · near
12 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows San Juan County carries 12 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2748 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
San Juan County versus quieter counties in this dataset
San Juan County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · San Juan County
12 14th percentile higher than 14% 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 Juan County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for San Juan County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $4.6M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Earthquake carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low). 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 Juan County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 35.4/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $9.9M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively High) and community resilience (Very High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Earthquake, only reaches Relatively Low on FEMA's scale, none of the 18 modeled hazards stand out here. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 52 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 9 claims and $140.4K paid in total. PlainHazard calls 1-49 claims a light registry record, a label for this dataset rather than a finding that flood exposure is low. A short claims history can also reflect insurance take-up, the period covered, or losses that were never insured.
Start with the state benchmark: a Washington county averages 24.9 federal declaration records, while San Juan County has 12. The gap is 52% 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.
49 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
San Juan County, WA · 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
9/30
12 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.6x national county average)
County Disaster Density Low
6/25
12 declarations (0.5x state county average of 25)
Major Disaster Share Very High
21/25
10 of 12 declarations are major disasters (83%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in San Juan County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - San Juan 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
83%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
35
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike San Juan 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 52 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 4.8 times per year |
| Coastal Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 3.6 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 28 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 27,958 years |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 10,000 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 25 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Tsunami | Very Low | roughly once every 18 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 4.3 times per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 130 years |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 165 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 301 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 4
Severe Storm 4
Biological 2
Coastal Storm 1
Volcanic Eruption 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on San Juan County's record, 33% 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 - 10 83.3%
of all 12 declarations
Emergency - 2 16.7%
of all 12 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 2 | |
| 1980 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 12 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 12 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4635 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2022-01-05 |
| 4539 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2020-04-23 |
| 4481 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-22 |
| 3427 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 1682 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-02-14 |
| 1641 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, TIDAL SURGE, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-05-17 |
| 3227 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-07 |
| 1499 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-11-07 |
| 1159 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, LAND & MUDS SLIDES,FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-17 |
| 896 | SEVERE STORMS & HIGH TIDES | DR | Flood | 1991-03-08 |
| 883 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1990-11-26 |
| 623 | VOLCANIC ERUPTION, MT. ST. HELENS | DR | Volcanic Eruption | 1980-05-21 |
Storm Events in Washington
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to San Juan County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy Snow | 1,700 | 5 | 7 | $2.3M |
| High Wind | 614 | 15 | 6 | $1.1B |
| Wildfire | 299 | 4 | 4 | $1.8B |
| Winter Weather | 259 | 9 | 62 | $1.1M |
| Flood | 231 | 4 | 0 | $391.2M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
9
Total Paid
$140.4K
Avg Per Claim
$15.6K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 35.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$9.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Earthquake Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Coastal Flooding Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Volcanic Activity Very Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Tsunami Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Hail Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Drought 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: Earthquake
Earthquake is the model's clearest example of a hazard with no season and no warning. Its expected loss is driven less by how often shaking occurs than by how much of the building stock predates modern seismic codes, so exposure can be high in places where nothing has happened for a long time.
Worth noting for San Juan County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Earthquake carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Low), 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
San Juan County's closest FEMA peer: Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, AK
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for San Juan County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
San Juan County shows 12 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
San Juan County: 10 of 12 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
San Juan County: NRI composite 35.4 (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 San Juan County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for San Juan 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: 35.4 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 12. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 12 FEMA declarations, San Juan 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 San Juan County?
The most common disaster type in San Juan County is Severe Storm, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (4), Biological (2), Coastal Storm (1).
How does San Juan County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Washington average?
The typical Washington county has 24.9 FEMA declaration records; San Juan County has 12, or 52% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 42% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has San Juan County received?
San Juan County has received 10 major disaster declarations, representing 83% of all 12 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has San Juan County filed?
San Juan County has 9 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $140.4K in payments, with an average of $15.6K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in San Juan County?
No. In San Juan County, Earthquake has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $4.6M. 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 Juan County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in San Juan County was 2020, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1980 to 2022.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for San Juan County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, San Juan County, Washington has an overall risk score of 35.4 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively High, while community resilience comes in at Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $9.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to San Juan County?
FEMA's NRI data points to San Juan County as of the latest release is Earthquake (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Landslide (Very Low) and Winter Weather (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts earthquake here at roughly once every 52 years. FEMA derives these ratings from historical event frequency, the assets exposed, and the community's vulnerability profile.
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 Juan County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Washington profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events