FEMA Records
15
Below median
Ohio · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Shelby County, OH
15 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 15
- FEMA declarations
- 9
- Major disasters
- 56
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Shelby County. Its 15 FEMA declarations are 2% above the Ohio county mean and exceed the count for 23% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 44%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 44%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 15
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 97
- 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 Shelby County compare?
Shelby County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
15 23rd percentile higher than 23% 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
Shelby County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Ohio county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Shelby County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $9.3M 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 Shelby County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 97 paid claims, totaling $1.6M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $16.1K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Shelby County's 15 federal records stand 2% above the Ohio county mean of 14.6. 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 carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 56.2/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $17.5M in annualized losses), and a Relatively Moderate social-vulnerability profile combined with Very High community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. 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 443 years here.
Declaration frequency
The FEMA register is busy by both local and national comparisons. It contains 15 entries for Shelby County, including 9 Major Disaster records, 2% above the Ohio 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.
52 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Shelby County, OH · 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
11/30
15 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
13/25
15 declarations (1.0x state county average of 15)
Major Disaster Share High
15/25
9 of 15 declarations are major disasters (60%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Shelby County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Ohio Avg
+2%
State avg: 14.6
vs. National Avg
-28%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.3
Over 55 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Shelby 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
60%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
56
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Shelby 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 443 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 44 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.2 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 4 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 12 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 1.9 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 11 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.8 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 4.9 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 87 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 3.9 modeled event-days per year |
| Drought | Very Low | 0.1 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 90,161 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
Snowstorm 3
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Tornado 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Shelby County's record, 53% 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 60.0%
of all 15 declarations
Emergency - 6 40.0%
of all 15 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2012 | 2 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 15 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 15 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4507 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-31 |
| 3457 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4077 | SEVERE STORMS AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2012-08-20 |
| 3346 | SEVERE STORMS | EM | Severe Storm | 2012-06-30 |
| 1805 | SEVERE WIND STORM ASSOCIATED WITH TROPICAL DEPRESSION IKE | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-10-24 |
| 3250 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1580 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2005-02-15 |
| 3198 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2005-01-11 |
| 1556 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-09-19 |
| 1478 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-07-15 |
| 1065 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-08-25 |
| 951 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1992-08-04 |
| 3055 | BLIZZARDS & SNOWSTORMS | EM | Snowstorm | 1978-01-26 |
| 3029 | SNOWSTORMS | EM | Snowstorm | 1977-02-02 |
| 191 | TORNADOES & SEVERE STORMS | DR | Tornado | 1965-04-14 |
Storm Events in Ohio
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Shelby County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 6,938 | 6 | 39 | $60.4M |
| Winter Weather | 2,101 | 7 | 42 | $3.3M |
| Hail | 1,749 | 0 | 0 | $673.5K |
| Flood | 1,607 | 9 | 0 | $84.5M |
| Flash Flood | 1,089 | 9 | 7 | $112.2M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
97
Total Paid
$1.6M
Avg Per Claim
$16.1K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 56.2/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$17.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Earthquake Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Drought 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: 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 Shelby 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
Shelby County's closest FEMA peer: Emporia (city), VA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Shelby County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Shelby County shows 15 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Shelby County: 9 of 15 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Shelby County: NRI composite 56.2 (Relatively 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 Shelby County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Shelby County's NFIP claims file (97 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 Shelby County?
The most common disaster type in Shelby County is Severe Storm, with 8 declarations. Other disaster types include Snowstorm (3), Biological (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Shelby County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Ohio average?
FEMA lists 15 declaration records for Shelby County. That is 2% above the Ohio county mean of 14.6. Its count is also 28% 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 Shelby County received?
Shelby County has received 9 major disaster declarations, representing 60% of all 15 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Shelby County filed?
Shelby County has 97 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $1.6M in payments, with an average of $16.1K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Shelby County?
No. In Shelby County, Earthquake has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $9.3M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Shelby County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Shelby County was 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Shelby County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Shelby County, Ohio has an overall risk score of 56.2 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Moderate; on community resilience, Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $17.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Shelby County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Shelby County as of the latest release is Earthquake (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Lightning (Relatively Moderate) and Hail (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts earthquake here at roughly once every 443 years. 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 Shelby County
Shelby County, OH has 15 federal declaration records, 2% more than the Ohio county mean of 15; its history sits in PlainHazard's high activity band.
- Within this above-state-average declaration file, major disaster leads with 9 of 15 records; the category describes past federal action, not the next likely hazard. Ohio overview
- The state benchmark and national rank point the same way: this count tops the Ohio mean and the totals for 23% of 3,266 U.S. counties. Most-disaster rankings
- Use the data guide to separate this mid-volume insurance-claims file from declaration counts and modeled NRI risk. 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.