FEMA Records
17
Below median
Minnesota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
St. Louis County, MN
17 FEMA disaster declarations (1970-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 17
- FEMA declarations
- 13
- Major disasters
- 92
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
St. Louis County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 17 declarations, more than 32% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 4% below the Minnesota county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 8%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 8%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 17
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 183
- 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 27137 · St. Louis County 17 declarations · rank 2130/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 17
- MAJOR-MID 76%
- RANK-LOWER #2,130
- PHOTO-FINISH Curry
- NRI-MID 92
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -4%
Nearest declaration peer: Curry, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Minnesota state profile
St. Louis County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among St. Louis County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Curry · near 17
Curry · near
17 declarations
- Murray · near 17
Murray · near
17 declarations
- St. Louis · this county 17
St. Louis · this county
17 declarations
- Washington · near 17
Washington · near
17 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows St. Louis County carries 17 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2130 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
St. Louis County versus quieter counties in this dataset
St. Louis County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · St. Louis County
17 32nd percentile higher than 32% 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
St. Louis County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does St. Louis County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 183 paid claims, totaling $1.8M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $10.0K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Minnesota county averages 17.7 federal declaration records, while St. Louis County has 17. The gap is 4% 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 91.6/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $112.4M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Low and community resilience Very High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Cold Wave stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 15 times per year here, based on 280 historical events on record.
58 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
St. Louis County, MN · 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
12/30
17 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
17 declarations (1.0x state county average of 18)
Major Disaster Share Very High
19/25
13 of 17 declarations are major disasters (76%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in St. Louis County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - St. Louis 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
76%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
92
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike St. Louis 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Wave | Very High | an average of 15 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very High | an average of 18 times per year |
| Lightning | Very High | an average of 27 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 0.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2,299 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 6 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | an average of 2.4 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 13 modeled event-days per year |
| Coastal Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 78 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 13,333 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 9
Severe Storm 3
Biological 2
Fire 1
Hurricane 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on St. Louis County's record, 53% 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 - 13 76.5%
of all 17 declarations
Emergency - 3 17.6%
of all 17 declarations
Fire Management - 1 5.9%
of all 17 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1970 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 17 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 17 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5583 | MUNGER SHAW FIRE | FM | Fire | 2025-05-14 |
| 4797 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2024-06-28 |
| 4722 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2023-07-19 |
| 4659 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2022-07-13 |
| 4531 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-07 |
| 3453 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4414 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-02-01 |
| 4390 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2018-09-05 |
| 4069 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2012-07-06 |
| 3242 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1370 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Flood | 2001-05-16 |
| 1283 | SEVERE STORMS, WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-07-28 |
| 1175 | SEVERE FLOODING, HIGH WINDS,SEVERE STORMS | DR | Flood | 1997-04-08 |
| 1064 | SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS, WINDS, FLOODING, TORNADOES, AND HEAT | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-08-18 |
| 3013 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1976-06-17 |
| 350 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-08-25 |
| 291 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1970-07-22 |
Storm Events in Minnesota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to St. Louis County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,420 | 13 | 25 | $68.2M |
| Hail | 4,203 | 0 | 0 | $34.5M |
| Extreme Cold/Wind Chill | 1,789 | 7 | 4 | $55.0K |
| Winter Storm | 1,695 | 2 | 17 | $10.0M |
| Heavy Snow | 1,190 | 9 | 14 | $1.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
183
Total Paid
$1.8M
Avg Per Claim
$10.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 91.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$112.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Very High
Winter Weather Very High
Lightning Very High
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Landslide Very Low
Drought Relatively Low
Coastal Flooding Very Low
Earthquake 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: Cold Wave
Cold Wave measures exposure to extreme cold rather than to snow. Its harm is concentrated in health effects, burst infrastructure and energy demand spikes, and it falls hardest where the building stock and the grid were not built with sustained cold in mind.
Worth noting for St. Louis County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave carries the highest modeled rating (Very High), 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
St. Louis County's closest FEMA peer: Monroe County, FL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for St. Louis County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
St. Louis County: NRI composite 91.6 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar Major-disaster share
St. Louis County: 13 of 17 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
St. Louis County shows 17 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
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 St. Louis County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for St. Louis 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: 91.6 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 17. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
St. Louis County's NFIP claims file (183 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).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in St. Louis County?
The most common disaster type in St. Louis County is Flood, with 9 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (3), Biological (2), Fire (1).
How does St. Louis County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Minnesota average?
The typical Minnesota county has 17.7 FEMA declaration records; St. Louis County has 17, or 4% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 18% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has St. Louis County received?
St. Louis County has received 13 major disaster declarations, representing 76% of all 17 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has St. Louis County filed?
St. Louis County has 183 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $1.8M in payments, with an average of $10.0K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in St. Louis County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in St. Louis County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1970 to 2025.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for St. Louis County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, St. Louis County, Minnesota has an overall risk score of 91.6 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Low, while community resilience comes in at Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $112.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to St. Louis County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in St. Louis County as of the latest release is Cold Wave (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Winter Weather (Very High) and Lightning (Very High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 15 times per year, drawn from 280 historical events on record. FEMA derives these ratings from historical event frequency, the assets exposed, and the community's vulnerability profile.
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 St. Louis County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Minnesota profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events