FEMA Records
9
Low volume
Utah · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Sevier County, UT
9 FEMA disaster declarations (1977-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 9
- FEMA declarations
- 5
- Major disasters
- 23
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
FEMA records a middle-volume declaration history for Sevier County: 9 entries, 6% above its Utah county benchmark and ahead of 8% of counties nationally. The National Risk Index answers a different question. Its modeled loss, vulnerability, and resilience inputs place this county safer than 23% of U.S. counties.
- Safer than 23%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 9
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 15
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Fire Management Assistance (FM) records, which are not presidential disaster declarations, alongside Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 49041 · Sevier County 9 declarations · rank 3007/3,266
DECL-LIGHT · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-MODERATE · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-LIGHT 9
- MAJOR-MID 56%
- RANK-LOWER #3,007
- PHOTO-FINISH Fulton
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-MODERATE Moderate
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +6%
Nearest declaration peer: Fulton, OH (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Utah state profile
Sevier County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Sevier County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Fulton · near 9
Fulton · near
9 declarations
- Gallatin · near 9
Gallatin · near
9 declarations
- Hillsdale · near 9
Hillsdale · near
9 declarations
- Sevier · this county 9
Sevier · this county
9 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Sevier County carries 9 FEMA declaration records, ranked 3007 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Sevier County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Sevier County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Sevier County
9 8th percentile higher than 8% 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
Sevier County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Sevier County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 22.7/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $10.1M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Very Low social-vulnerability score and Relatively Moderate community-resilience score. 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 62 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 15 claims and $35.5K 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.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Sevier County's 9 federal records stand 6% above the Utah county mean of 8.5. 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.
47 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Sevier County, UT · 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) Low
7/30
9 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.4x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
13/25
9 declarations (1.1x state county average of 8)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
5 of 9 declarations are major disasters (56%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Sevier County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Sevier 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
56%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
23
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Sevier 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 62 years |
| Avalanche | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 6 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | an average of 2.5 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 465 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 45 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 30 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 84 modeled event-days per year |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 5,000 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 9 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 25 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 2,604 years |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 13 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 4
Biological 2
Fire 1
Coastal Storm 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Sevier County's record, 44% 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 - 5 55.6%
of all 9 declarations
Emergency - 3 33.3%
of all 9 declarations
Fire Management - 1 11.1%
of all 9 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 1984 | 1 | |
| 1983 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 9 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 9 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5600 | MONROE CANYON FIRE | FM | Fire | 2025-07-16 |
| 4525 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-04 |
| 3478 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4011 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2011-08-08 |
| 3223 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-05 |
| 1598 | FLOODING AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2005-08-01 |
| 720 | SEVERE STORMS, MUDSLIDES, LANDSLIDES & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1984-08-17 |
| 680 | SEVERE STORMS, LANDSLIDES & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1983-04-30 |
| 3024 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-01-20 |
Storm Events in Utah
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Sevier County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 1,382 | 3 | 7 | $2.2M |
| Flash Flood | 536 | 29 | 17 | $101.2M |
| High Wind | 496 | 4 | 60 | $12.7M |
| Heavy Snow | 488 | 1 | 2 | $2.4M |
| Winter Storm | 344 | 1 | 36 | $435.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
15
Total Paid
$35.5K
Avg Per Claim
$2.4K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 22.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$10.1M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Earthquake Relatively Low
Avalanche Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Wildfire Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Low
Volcanic Activity Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Hail 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: 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 Sevier 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 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
Sevier County's closest FEMA peer: Sawyer County, WI
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Sevier County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Sevier County shows 9 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Sevier County: 5 of 9 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Sevier County: NRI composite 22.7 (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 Sevier County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Sevier 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: 22.7 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 9. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
FEMA's National Risk Index flags Earthquake as the top modeled exposure here (Relatively Low); the guide explains how that model differs from declaration counts.
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 Sevier County?
The most common disaster type in Sevier County is Flood, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Fire (1), Coastal Storm (1).
How does Sevier County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Utah average?
FEMA lists 9 declaration records for Sevier County. That is 6% above the Utah county mean of 8.5. Its count is also 57% 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 Sevier County received?
Sevier County has received 5 major disaster declarations, representing 56% of all 9 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Sevier County filed?
Sevier County has 15 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $35.5K in payments, with an average of $2.4K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Sevier County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Sevier County was 2005, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1977 to 2025.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Sevier County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Sevier County, Utah has an overall risk score of 22.7 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $10.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Sevier County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Sevier County is Earthquake (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Avalanche (Relatively Moderate) and Landslide (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts earthquake here at roughly once every 62 years. 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 Sevier County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Utah profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events