FEMA Records
34
Very high volume
Missouri · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
St. Louis County, MO
34 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively High. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 34
- FEMA declarations
- 25
- Major disasters
- 99
- NRI risk · Relatively High
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for St. Louis County. Its 34 FEMA declarations are 38% above the Missouri county mean and exceed the count for 92% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 1%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 1%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively High
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 34
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 12,031
- 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 29189 · St. Louis County 34 declarations · rank 253/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-HIGH · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 34
- MAJOR-MID 74%
- RANK-UPPER #253
- PHOTO-FINISH Sumter
- NRI-HIGH 99
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-ABOVE +38%
Nearest declaration peer: Sumter, FL (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Missouri state profile
St. Louis County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among St. Louis County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Casey · near 34
Casey · near
34 declarations
- Morgan · near 34
Morgan · near
34 declarations
- St. Louis · this county 34
St. Louis · this county
34 declarations
- Sumter · near 34
Sumter · near
34 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows St. Louis County carries 34 FEMA declaration records, ranked 253 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where St. Louis County ranks in the national declaration registry
St. Louis County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · St. Louis County
34 Top 8% higher than 92% 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
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 12,031 claims and $264.7M in payments. PlainHazard labels 500 or more claims a heavy registry record; that is a reporting bucket, not an official FEMA risk grade. The average paid claim was $22.0K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. St. Louis County's 34 federal records stand 38% above the Missouri county mean of 24.6. 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 sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 99.3/100 (Relatively High). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively High (roughly $752.7M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Low and community resilience Relatively High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Heat Wave stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 15 modeled event-days per year here, based on 153 historical events on record.
78 /100
Historical Activity Index
Very High historical activity
St. Louis County, MO · 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) Very High
25/30
34 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.6x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
17/25
34 declarations (1.4x state county average of 25)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
25 of 34 declarations are major disasters (74%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 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
74%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
99
Relatively High
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Heat Wave | Very High | 15 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Very High | an average of 5.3 times per year |
| Lightning | Very High | an average of 53 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Very High | an average of 1.7 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively High | an average of 2.8 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively High | roughly once every 185 years |
| Ice Storm | Very High | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very High | an average of 8.7 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively High | roughly once every 2 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 5.9 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 8,618 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 90 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 1.9 modeled event-days 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 16
Flood 10
Severe Ice Storm 3
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Tornado 1
Drought 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on St. Louis County's record, 47% 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 - 25 73.5%
of all 34 declarations
Emergency - 9 26.5%
of all 34 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2016 | 2 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 3 | |
| 2009 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 3 | |
| 2007 | 2 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
Show 8 earlier declaration years
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 2 | |
| 1993 | 2 | |
| 1987 | 1 | |
| 1983 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 34 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 34 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4877 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2025-06-09 |
| 4867 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND WILDFIRES | DR | Severe Storm | 2025-05-21 |
| 4665 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2022-08-08 |
| 4490 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-26 |
| 3482 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4317 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2017-06-02 |
| 4250 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2016-01-21 |
| 3374 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2016-01-02 |
| 4130 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2013-07-18 |
| 3325 | FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2011-06-30 |
| 1980 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-05-09 |
| 3317 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Storm | 2011-02-03 |
| 3303 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2009-01-30 |
| 1809 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND A TORNADO | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-11-13 |
| 1773 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-06-25 |
| 1749 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-03-19 |
| 3281 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2007-12-12 |
| 1676 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2007-01-15 |
| 1673 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-12-29 |
| 3267 | SEVERE STORMS | EM | Severe Storm | 2006-07-21 |
Show 14 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3232 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1463 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-05-06 |
| 1328 | SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS AND FLASH FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2000-05-12 |
| 1256 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-10-19 |
| 1054 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, HAIL, FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-06-02 |
| 1023 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-04-21 |
| 1006 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1993-12-01 |
| 995 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-09 |
| 989 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-05-11 |
| 779 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-10-14 |
| 672 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1982-12-10 |
| 579 | TORNADOES, TORRENTIAL RAIN & FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 1979-04-21 |
| 3017 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1976-09-24 |
| 372 | HEAVY RAINS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1973-04-19 |
Storm Events in Missouri
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 | 6,391 | 30 | 52 | $63.4M |
| Hail | 4,411 | 0 | 1 | $86.1M |
| Flash Flood | 2,399 | 47 | 14 | $406.6M |
| Flood | 1,810 | 25 | 7 | $304.6M |
| Drought | 1,033 | 0 | 350 | $53.6M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
12,031
Total Paid
$264.7M
Avg Per Claim
$22.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively High
Score: 99.3/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively High
$752.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Heat Wave Very High
Hail Very High
Lightning Very High
Cold Wave Very High
Riverine Flooding Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively High
Ice Storm Very High
Winter Weather Very High
Tornado Relatively High
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively High
Wildfire Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Drought 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: Heat Wave
Heat Wave is measured in event-days per year rather than discrete events, and it is the hazard whose harm is most consistently undercounted: its toll is health and mortality, concentrated among people without cooling, rather than visible damage to property.
Worth noting for St. Louis County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Heat Wave carries the highest modeled rating (Very High), 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
St. Louis County's closest FEMA peer: Brazoria County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for St. Louis County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
St. Louis County shows 34 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
St. Louis County: 25 of 34 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
St. Louis County: NRI composite 99.3 (Relatively High).
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: 99.3 (Relatively High).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 34. 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 (12,031 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 Severe Storm, with 16 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (10), Severe Ice Storm (3), Biological (2).
How does St. Louis County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Missouri average?
FEMA lists 34 declaration records for St. Louis County. That is 38% above the Missouri county mean of 24.6. Its count is also 64% above 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 St. Louis County received?
St. Louis County has received 25 major disaster declarations, representing 74% of all 34 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has St. Louis County filed?
St. Louis County has 12,031 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $264.7M in payments, with an average of $22.0K 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 2008, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2025.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for St. Louis County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, St. Louis County, Missouri has an overall risk score of 99.3 out of 100 (Relatively High). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Low; on community resilience, Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively High, representing $752.7M 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 Heat Wave (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Hail (Very High) and Lightning (Very High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts heat wave here at 15 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 153 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 · Missouri profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events