FEMA Records
15
Below median
Indiana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Spencer County, IN
15 FEMA disaster declarations (1979-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 15
- FEMA declarations
- 11
- Major disasters
- 39
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Spencer County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 15 declarations, more than 23% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 12% below the Indiana county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 39%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 39%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 15
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 45
- 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 18147 · Spencer County 15 declarations · rank 2471/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 15
- MAJOR-MID 73%
- RANK-LOWER #2,471
- PHOTO-FINISH Polk
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -12%
Nearest declaration peer: Polk, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Indiana state profile
Spencer County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Spencer County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Flathead · near 15
Flathead · near
15 declarations
- Murray · near 15
Murray · near
15 declarations
- Polk · near 15
Polk · near
15 declarations
- Spencer · this county 15
Spencer · this county
15 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Spencer County carries 15 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2471 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Spencer County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Spencer County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Spencer County
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 · 2026-08-25
Spencer County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Spencer County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $6.0M 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 Spencer County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 39.4/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $12.6M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively Low) and community resilience (Relatively High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. 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 197 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 45 claims and $407.9K 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 Indiana county averages 17.1 federal declaration records, while Spencer County has 15. The gap is 12% 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.
55 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Spencer County, IN · 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 Moderate
11/25
15 declarations (0.9x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
11 of 15 declarations are major disasters (73%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Spencer County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Spencer 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
73%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
39
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Spencer 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 197 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 6.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 3.2 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 8 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 2.9 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 8.5 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 2,994 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 167 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 52 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | an average of 1.1 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 6
Flood 4
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Hurricane 1
Snowstorm 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Spencer County's record, 40% 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 - 11 73.3%
of all 15 declarations
Emergency - 4 26.7%
of all 15 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 2 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3641 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4515 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-03 |
| 3456 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4363 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2018-05-04 |
| 1997 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-06-23 |
| 1828 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-03-05 |
| 1795 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-09-23 |
| 3238 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 3197 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2005-01-11 |
| 1542 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-09-01 |
| 1520 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-06-03 |
| 1165 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-03-06 |
| 1109 | BLIZZARD OF 96 | DR | Flood | 1996-04-02 |
| 891 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1991-01-05 |
| 596 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1979-07-31 |
Storm Events in Indiana
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Spencer County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,886 | 16 | 73 | $57.6M |
| Hail | 1,643 | 0 | 0 | $1.7M |
| Winter Weather | 1,166 | 32 | 80 | $2.5M |
| Flood | 850 | 13 | 3 | $16.0M |
| Flash Flood | 648 | 14 | 5 | $97.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
45
Total Paid
$407.9K
Avg Per Claim
$9.1K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 39.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$12.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Earthquake Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Cold Wave 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 Spencer 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
Spencer County's closest FEMA peer: Pine County, MN
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Spencer County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Spencer County shows 15 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Spencer County: 11 of 15 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Spencer County: NRI composite 39.4 (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 Spencer County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Spencer 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: 39.4 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 15. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 15 FEMA declarations, Spencer 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 Spencer County?
The most common disaster type in Spencer County is Severe Storm, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (4), Biological (2), Winter Storm (1).
How does Spencer County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Indiana average?
The typical Indiana county has 17.1 FEMA declaration records; Spencer County has 15, or 12% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 28% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Spencer County received?
Spencer County has received 11 major disaster declarations, representing 73% of all 15 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Spencer County filed?
Spencer County has 45 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $407.9K in payments, with an average of $9.1K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Spencer County?
No. In Spencer County, Earthquake has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $6.0M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Spencer County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Spencer County was 2004, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1979 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Spencer County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Spencer County, Indiana has an overall risk score of 39.4 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Low and community resilience is Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $12.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Spencer County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Spencer County as of the latest release is Earthquake (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Ice Storm (Relatively Moderate) and Strong Wind (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts earthquake here at roughly once every 197 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 Spencer County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Indiana profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events