FEMA Records
22
Above median
North Dakota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Sheridan County, ND
22 FEMA disaster declarations (1969-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 22
- FEMA declarations
- 20
- Major disasters
- 5
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Sheridan County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 22 declarations, more than 57% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 15% below the North Dakota county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 5%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 5%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 22
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 5
- 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 38083 · Sheridan County 22 declarations · rank 1257/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 22
- MAJOR-HEAVY 91%
- RANK-LOWER #1,257
- PHOTO-FINISH Hardy
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -15%
Nearest declaration peer: Hardy, WV (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · North Dakota state profile
Sheridan County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Sheridan County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Hardy · near 22
Hardy · near
22 declarations
- Prairie · near 22
Prairie · near
22 declarations
- Sheridan · this county 22
Sheridan · this county
22 declarations
- St. Francis · near 22
St. Francis · near
22 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Sheridan County carries 22 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1257 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Sheridan County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Sheridan County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Sheridan County
22 Top 43% higher than 57% 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
Sheridan County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Sheridan County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's National Risk Index places this county in the low end of the national distribution, composite score 5.0/100 (Very Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $4.2M in annualized losses). Two modifiers shape how that exposure becomes real-world harm here: social vulnerability (Very Low) and community resilience (Relatively Low). Among the 18 modeled hazards, Hail carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 2.5 times per year here, based on 94 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 5 claims and $139.9K 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 North Dakota county averages 25.9 federal declaration records, while Sheridan County has 22. The gap is 15% 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.
63 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Sheridan County, ND · 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) High
16/30
22 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.1x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
22 declarations (0.8x state county average of 26)
Major Disaster Share Very High
23/25
20 of 22 declarations are major disasters (91%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Sheridan County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Sheridan 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
91%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
5
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Sheridan 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.5 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 21 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 2,640 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 20 times per year |
| Drought | Very Low | 14 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | an average of 1.3 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 11,494 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 1.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 14 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 28 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 9
Flood 9
Biological 2
Snowstorm 1
Coastal Storm 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Sheridan County's record, 41% 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 - 20 90.9%
of all 22 declarations
Emergency - 2 9.1%
of all 22 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 4 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 2 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
Show 3 earlier declaration years
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 22 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 22 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4888 | SEVERE STORM, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2025-09-11 |
| 4553 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2020-07-09 |
| 4509 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-01 |
| 3477 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4475 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2020-01-21 |
| 4128 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2013-07-12 |
| 1981 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2011-05-10 |
| 1901 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-04-21 |
| 1829 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-03-24 |
| 1616 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND RECORD AND/OR NEAR RECORD SNOW | DR | Snowstorm | 2005-11-21 |
| 3247 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-13 |
| 1376 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, & GROUND SATURATION | DR | Flood | 2001-05-28 |
| 1334 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING AND GROUND SATURATION | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-06-27 |
| 1279 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, SNOW, ICE, GROUND SATURATION, LANSLIDES, MUDSLIDES, AND TOR | DR | Flood | 1999-06-08 |
| 1174 | SEVERE FLOODING,SEVERE WINTER STORMS, SNOWMELT, SPRING RAINS | DR | Flood | 1997-04-07 |
| 1157 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND BLIZZARD CONDITIONS | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-12 |
| 1118 | SEVERE STORMS,FLOODING, & ICE JAMS | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-06-05 |
| 1050 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND GROUND SATURATION | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-05-16 |
| 1032 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-07-01 |
| 1001 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-26 |
Show 2 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 581 | SEVERE STORMS, SNOWMELT & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1979-04-26 |
| 256 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-04-18 |
Storm Events in North Dakota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Sheridan County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 2,705 | 0 | 2 | $116.1M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 2,459 | 2 | 10 | $67.0M |
| High Wind | 1,184 | 1 | 1 | $2.9M |
| Heavy Snow | 925 | 0 | 3 | $650.0K |
| Blizzard | 905 | 2 | 2 | $60.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
5
Total Paid
$139.9K
Avg Per Claim
$28.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 5.0/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$4.2M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hail Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Very Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Drought Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Lightning 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: Hail
Hail is among the most expensive hazards in the model relative to how little it threatens life. It concentrates on roofs, vehicles and crops, and a single severe storm can generate an insurance loss across a metropolitan area without a single injury.
Worth noting for Sheridan County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Hail carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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
Sheridan County's closest FEMA peer: Island County, WA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Sheridan County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Sheridan County shows 22 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Sheridan County: 20 of 22 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Sheridan County: NRI composite 5.0 (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 Sheridan County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Sheridan 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: 5.0 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 22. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 22 FEMA declarations, Sheridan 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 Sheridan County?
The most common disaster type in Sheridan County is Flood, with 9 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (9), Biological (2), Snowstorm (1).
How does Sheridan County's FEMA declaration record compare with the North Dakota average?
The typical North Dakota county has 25.9 FEMA declaration records; Sheridan County has 22, or 15% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 6% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Sheridan County received?
Sheridan County has received 20 major disaster declarations, representing 91% of all 22 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Sheridan County filed?
Sheridan County has 5 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $139.9K in payments, with an average of $28.0K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Sheridan County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Sheridan County was 2020, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1969 to 2025.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Sheridan County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Sheridan County, North Dakota has an overall risk score of 5.0 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $4.2M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Sheridan County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Sheridan County is Hail (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate) and Ice Storm (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hail here at an average of 2.5 times per year, drawn from 94 historical events on record. 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 Sheridan County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · North Dakota profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events