FEMA Records
12
Low volume
Illinois · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Sangamon County, IL
12 FEMA disaster declarations (1974-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 12
- FEMA declarations
- 9
- Major disasters
- 92
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Sangamon 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 7% below the Illinois county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 8%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 8%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 12
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 293
- 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 17167 · Sangamon County 12 declarations · rank 2783/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 12
- MAJOR-MID 75%
- RANK-LOWER #2,783
- PHOTO-FINISH Johnson
- NRI-MID 92
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -7%
Nearest declaration peer: Johnson, KS (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Illinois state profile
Sangamon County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Sangamon 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
- Sangamon · this county 12
Sangamon · this county
12 declarations
- Seward · near 12
Seward · near
12 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Sangamon County carries 12 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2783 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Sangamon County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Sangamon County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Sangamon 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
Sangamon County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Sangamon County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $46.7M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Tornado 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 Sangamon County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 293 paid claims, totaling $3.7M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $12.8K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Illinois county averages 12.9 federal declaration records, while Sangamon County has 12. The gap is 7% 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 91.7/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $114.8M 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, Tornado stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 1 years here, based on 65 historical events on record.
58 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Sangamon County, IL · 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 Moderate
12/25
12 declarations (0.9x state county average of 13)
Major Disaster Share Very High
19/25
9 of 12 declarations are major disasters (75%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Sangamon County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Sangamon 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
75%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
92
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Sangamon 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tornado | Relatively High | roughly once every 1 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively High | an average of 3.4 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 8.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Drought | Relatively High | 3.1 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively High | an average of 3.7 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 331 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.2 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 8.9 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 48 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 5.3 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 103 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 14,169 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 4
Biological 2
Snowstorm 2
Severe Ice Storm 1
Hurricane 1
Tornado 1
Flood 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Sangamon 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 - 9 75.0%
of all 12 declarations
Emergency - 3 25.0%
of all 12 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4728 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-08-15 |
| 4489 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-26 |
| 3435 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 1960 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2011-03-17 |
| 1681 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2007-02-09 |
| 1633 | TORNADOES AND SEVERE STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-03-28 |
| 3230 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-07 |
| 1416 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 2002-05-21 |
| 3134 | IL-WINTER STORM 1/1/99 | EM | Snowstorm | 1999-01-08 |
| 1112 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-05-06 |
| 1025 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-04-26 |
| 438 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1974-06-10 |
Storm Events in Illinois
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Sangamon County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 7,218 | 9 | 67 | $46.0M |
| Hail | 3,195 | 0 | 0 | $27.1M |
| Winter Weather | 1,363 | 14 | 49 | $1.8M |
| Flood | 1,221 | 14 | 11 | $84.3M |
| Flash Flood | 1,133 | 11 | 3 | $1.1B |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
293
Total Paid
$3.7M
Avg Per Claim
$12.8K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 91.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$114.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Tornado Relatively High
Cold Wave Relatively High
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively High
Hail Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively High
Lightning Relatively High
Strong Wind Relatively High
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Wildfire 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: Tornado
Tornado exposure is the most spatially concentrated in the model: total destruction along a narrow corridor with intact property either side. County-level averages therefore understate severity badly for anyone actually in the path, and overstate it for everyone else.
For Sangamon County the two measures on this page point the same way: Tornado is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively High), and Severe Storm declarations also lead its federal record. Where the model and the declaration history agree, the reading is comparatively straightforward, the hazard is both expected and repeatedly realised.
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
Sangamon County's closest FEMA peer: Rutherford County, TN
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Sangamon County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Sangamon County: NRI composite 91.7 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar Major-disaster share
Sangamon County: 9 of 12 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Sangamon County shows 12 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 Sangamon County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Sangamon 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: 91.7 (Relatively Moderate).
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
Understanding disaster data
Sangamon County's NFIP claims file (293 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 Sangamon County?
The most common disaster type in Sangamon County is Severe Storm, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Snowstorm (2), Severe Ice Storm (1).
How does Sangamon County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Illinois average?
The typical Illinois county has 12.9 FEMA declaration records; Sangamon County has 12, or 7% 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 Sangamon County received?
Sangamon County has received 9 major disaster declarations, representing 75% of all 12 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Sangamon County filed?
Sangamon County has 293 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $3.7M in payments, with an average of $12.8K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Sangamon County?
No. In Sangamon County, Tornado has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $46.7M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Sangamon County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Sangamon County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1974 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Sangamon County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Sangamon County, Illinois has an overall risk score of 91.7 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Low, while community resilience comes in at Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $114.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Sangamon County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Sangamon County is Tornado (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Cold Wave (Relatively High) and Heat Wave (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts tornado here at roughly once every 1 years, drawn from 65 historical events on record. 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 Sangamon County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Illinois profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events