FEMA Records
18
Below median
Kansas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Sedgwick County, KS
18 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively High. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 18
- FEMA declarations
- 14
- Major disasters
- 97
- NRI risk · Relatively High
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Sedgwick County. Its 18 FEMA declarations are 0% above the Kansas county mean and exceed the count for 37% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 3%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 3%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively High
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 18
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 990
- 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 Sedgwick County compare?
Sedgwick County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
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 · 2026-08-03
Sedgwick County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Kansas county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Sedgwick County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $101.0M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Ice Storm 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 Sedgwick County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 990 claims and $14.4M in payments. PlainHazard labels 500 or more claims a heavy registry record; that is a reporting bucket, not an official FEMA risk grade. The average paid claim was $14.5K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Sedgwick County's 18 federal records stand 0% above the Kansas county mean of 18.0. 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 96.6/100 (Relatively High). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively High (roughly $255.9M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Low and community resilience Relatively High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Ice Storm stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 1 years here, based on 49 historical events on record.
Declaration frequency
The FEMA register is busy by both local and national comparisons. It contains 18 entries for Sedgwick County, including 14 Major Disaster records, 0% above the Kansas county mean. Across the 55-year span, that works out to 0.3 declarations a year. Severe Storm leads the file with 8 entries. Declaration type records the federal action taken, not every assistance program approved.
63 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Sedgwick County, KS · 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 High
13/25
18 declarations (1.0x state county average of 18)
Major Disaster Share Very High
19/25
14 of 18 declarations are major disasters (78%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Sedgwick County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Kansas Avg
+0%
State avg: 18.0
vs. National Avg
-13%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.3
Over 55 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Sedgwick 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
78%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
97
Relatively High
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Sedgwick 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ice Storm | Very High | roughly once every 1 years |
| Cold Wave | Very High | an average of 1.6 times per year |
| Tornado | Very High | an average of 1 time per year |
| Hail | Relatively High | an average of 10 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively High | 14 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Very High | an average of 50 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very High | an average of 11 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively High | an average of 3.6 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1,040 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 7.1 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1,236 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 40 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 163 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 8
Flood 3
Biological 2
Tornado 2
Hurricane 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
Other 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Sedgwick County's record, 44% 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 - 14 77.8%
of all 18 declarations
Emergency - 4 22.2%
of all 18 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 2 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 2 | |
| 1965 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4504 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-29 |
| 3481 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4287 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-10-20 |
| 4063 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2012-05-24 |
| 1860 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-09-30 |
| 1741 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-02-01 |
| 3282 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | EM | Severe Storm | 2007-12-12 |
| 3236 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1579 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, HEAVY RAINS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2005-02-08 |
| 1402 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2002-02-06 |
| 1273 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1999-05-04 |
| 1258 | KS-FLOODING 10/31/98 | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-11-05 |
| 3126 | DEBRUCE GRAIN ELEVATOR EXPLOSION (SEDGWICK CTY) | EM | Other | 1998-06-09 |
| 1000 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-22 |
| 903 | SEVERE STORMS & TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1991-04-29 |
| 403 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1973-09-28 |
| 378 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-05-02 |
| 201 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1965-06-23 |
Storm Events in Kansas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Sedgwick County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 8,265 | 0 | 9 | $24.2M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 7,987 | 3 | 34 | $30.6M |
| High Wind | 1,553 | 1 | 7 | $10.2M |
| Drought | 1,272 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Flash Flood | 1,037 | 6 | 9 | $35.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
990
Total Paid
$14.4M
Avg Per Claim
$14.5K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively High
Score: 96.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively High
$255.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Ice Storm Very High
Cold Wave Very High
Tornado Very High
Hail Relatively High
Heat Wave Relatively High
Lightning Very High
Winter Weather Very High
Riverine Flooding Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Hurricane 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: Ice Storm
Ice storms load power lines and tree limbs with accumulating freezing rain until they fail. The characteristic cost is infrastructure and multi-day power loss across a wide area rather than structural damage to buildings, which is why their consequences often outlast the weather that caused them.
Worth noting for Sedgwick County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Ice Storm carries the highest modeled rating (Very High), 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
Sedgwick County's closest FEMA peer: Nueces County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Sedgwick County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Sedgwick County: NRI composite 96.6 (Relatively High).
Similar Major-disaster share
Sedgwick County: 14 of 18 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Sedgwick County shows 18 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 Sedgwick County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Sedgwick County's NFIP claims file (990 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 Sedgwick County?
The most common disaster type in Sedgwick County is Severe Storm, with 8 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (3), Biological (2), Tornado (2).
How does Sedgwick County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Kansas average?
FEMA lists 18 declaration records for Sedgwick County. That is 0% above the Kansas county mean of 18.0. Its count is also 13% 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 Sedgwick County received?
Sedgwick County has received 14 major disaster declarations, representing 78% of all 18 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Sedgwick County filed?
Sedgwick County has 990 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $14.4M in payments, with an average of $14.5K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Sedgwick County?
No. In Sedgwick County, Ice Storm has the highest National Risk Index rating (Very High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $101.0M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Sedgwick County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Sedgwick County was 1973, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Sedgwick County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Sedgwick County, Kansas has an overall risk score of 96.6 out of 100 (Relatively High). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively High, representing $255.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Sedgwick County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Sedgwick County is Ice Storm (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Cold Wave (Very High) and Tornado (Very High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts ice storm here at roughly once every 1 years, drawn from 49 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 Sedgwick County
Sedgwick County, KS has 18 federal declaration records, 0% more than the Kansas county mean of 18; its history sits in PlainHazard's high activity band.
- Within this above-state-average declaration file, major disaster leads with 14 of 18 records; the category describes past federal action, not the next likely hazard. Kansas overview
- The state benchmark and national rank point the same way: this count tops the Kansas mean and the totals for 37% of 3,266 U.S. counties. Most-disaster rankings
- The large NFIP claims file and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records; the guide explains where they overlap and where they do not. 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.