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Missouri · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index

Ste. Genevieve County, MO

31 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.

31
FEMA declarations
25
Major disasters
55
NRI risk · Relatively Low
Severe Storm
Top hazard

The verdict

Two federal records point in the busier direction for Ste. Genevieve County. Its 31 FEMA declarations are 26% above the Missouri county mean and exceed the count for 88% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 45%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.

Riskiest 45%
of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
Relatively Low
FEMA National Risk Index rating
31
FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
1,160
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.

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How does Ste. Genevieve County compare?

Ste. Genevieve County vs. all counties in this dataset

FEMA disaster declarations, all-time

31 Top 12% higher than 88% of 3,266 counties

This county 0 90 all U.S. counties FEMA tracks, bucketed by value

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

Ste. Genevieve County's FEMA Risk Index score

FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Missouri county average

0/100100/100Missouri avg51/10054.6/100
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Missouri county average

Which hazard drives modeled loss here?

FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Ste. Genevieve County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $8.9M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Heat Wave carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). 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 Ste. Genevieve County's hazard record show?

Reading the federal records together

FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 1,160 claims and $7.0M 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 $6.0K. 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. Ste. Genevieve County's 31 federal records stand 26% 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 carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 54.6/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $22.6M in annualized losses), and a Very Low social-vulnerability profile combined with Very High community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Heat Wave carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 11 modeled event-days per year here, based on 132 historical events on record.

Declaration frequency

The FEMA register is busy by both local and national comparisons. It contains 31 entries for Ste. Genevieve County, including 25 Major Disaster records, 26% above the Missouri county mean. Across the 52-year span, that works out to 0.6 declarations a year. Severe Storm leads the file with 18 entries. Declaration type records the federal action taken, not every assistance program approved.

73 /100

Historical Activity Index

High historical activity

Ste. Genevieve 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) High
22/30

31 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.5x national county average)

County Disaster Density High
16/25

31 declarations (1.3x state county average of 25)

Major Disaster Share Very High
20/25

25 of 31 declarations are major disasters (81%)

Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20

6 different disaster types declared in Ste. Genevieve County

Historical Declaration Activity

Activity Band

High

vs. Missouri Avg

+26%

State avg: 24.6

vs. National Avg

+50%

National avg: 20.7

Avg Per Year

0.6

Over 52 years

FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Ste. Genevieve County

Ste. Genevieve County NRI risk profile 8-axis FEMA National Risk Index radar showing per-hazard scores for Earthquake 25, Flood 25, Hurricane 8, Tornado 25, Wildfire 8, Drought 8, Heat Wave 48, Winter Storm 48. The simple mean of these eight displayed scores is 24 of 100. Earthquake Flood Hurricane Tornado Wildfire Drought Heat Wave Winter Storm 24 8-hazard mean
Ste. Genevieve County NRI risk profile FIPS 29186 · displayed-hazard mean 24/100
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.

FEMA Records

31

High volume

Major Disaster share

81%

Mostly major

NRI risk score

55

Relatively Low

Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release

How often does each hazard strike Ste. Genevieve 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 Relatively Moderate 11 modeled event-days per year
Earthquake Relatively Low roughly once every 148 years
Landslide Relatively Low an average of 1.7 times per year
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate an average of 5 times per year
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate an average of 8.1 times per year
Cold Wave Relatively Low an average of 1.3 times per year
Tornado Relatively Low roughly once every 2 years
Hail Relatively Low an average of 4.7 times per year
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low roughly once every 1 years
Wildfire Very Low roughly once every 1,847 years
Ice Storm Relatively Low roughly once every 1 years
Hurricane Very Low roughly once every 44 years
Lightning Relatively Low an average of 54 times per year
Drought Very Low 2.2 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 18
Flood 7
Biological 2
Severe Ice Storm 2
Hurricane 1
Tornado 1

What Severe Storm declarations mean here

Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Ste. Genevieve County's record, 58% 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 80.6%

of all 31 declarations

Emergency - 6 19.4%

of all 31 declarations

FEMA Declarations Timeline

Year Declarations
2025 1
2023 1
2020 2
2019 2
2017 1
2016 2
2015 1
2013 1
2011 2
2009 3
2008 3
2007 1
2006 1
2005 1
2003 1
Show 7 earlier declaration years
2002 1
2000 1
1995 1
1994 1
1993 2
1979 1
1973 1

Disaster Declarations

How the 31 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.

Download these 31 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.

DR# Title Type Incident Date
4872 SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2025-05-21
4741 SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2023-09-21
4490 COVID-19 PANDEMIC DR Biological 2020-03-26
3482 COVID-19 EM Biological 2020-03-13
4451 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2019-07-09
4435 SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING DR Flood 2019-05-20
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
4238 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2015-08-07
4130 SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2013-07-18
1980 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2011-05-09
3317 SEVERE WINTER STORM EM Severe Storm 2011-02-03
1847 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2009-06-19
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
1673 SEVERE WINTER STORMS DR Severe Storm 2006-12-29
Show 11 earlier declaration records
DR# Title Type Incident Date
1631 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2006-03-16
3232 HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION EM Hurricane 2005-09-10
1463 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2003-05-06
1412 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2002-05-06
1328 SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS AND FLASH FLOODING DR Flood 2000-05-12
1054 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, HAIL, FLOODING DR Severe Storm 1995-06-02
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
579 TORNADOES, TORRENTIAL RAIN & FLOODING DR Tornado 1979-04-21
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 Ste. Genevieve 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

1,160

Total Paid

$7.0M

Avg Per Claim

$6.0K

Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data

FEMA National Risk Index

Overall Risk

Relatively Low

Score: 54.6/100

Expected Annual Loss

Relatively Low

$22.6M/year

Social Vulnerability

Very Low

Community Resilience

Very High

Hazard Risk Breakdown

Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Landslide Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Lightning Relatively 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 Ste. Genevieve County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Heat Wave carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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

Ste. Genevieve County's closest FEMA peer: Caledonia County, VT

Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Ste. Genevieve County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.

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 Ste. Genevieve County - capture-dated entries only.

Further reading for this county

Understanding disaster data

Ste. Genevieve County's NFIP claims file (1,160 claims) and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records - this guide separates them from modeled NRI risk.

More PlainHazard guides

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most common disaster type in Ste. Genevieve County?
The most common disaster type in Ste. Genevieve County is Severe Storm, with 18 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (7), Biological (2), Severe Ice Storm (2).
How does Ste. Genevieve County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Missouri average?
FEMA lists 31 declaration records for Ste. Genevieve County. That is 26% above the Missouri county mean of 24.6. Its count is also 50% 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 Ste. Genevieve County received?
Ste. Genevieve County has received 25 major disaster declarations, representing 81% of all 31 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Ste. Genevieve County filed?
Ste. Genevieve County has 1,160 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $7.0M in payments, with an average of $6.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Ste. Genevieve County?
No. In Ste. Genevieve County, Heat Wave has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $8.9M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Ste. Genevieve County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Ste. Genevieve 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 Ste. Genevieve County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri has an overall risk score of 54.6 out of 100 (Relatively Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very Low and community resilience is Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $22.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Ste. Genevieve County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Ste. Genevieve County as of the latest release is Heat Wave (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Earthquake (Relatively Low) and Landslide (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts heat wave here at 11 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 132 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.

What this means for Ste. Genevieve County

Ste. Genevieve County, MO has 31 federal declaration records, 26% more than the Missouri county mean of 25; its history sits in PlainHazard's high activity band.

  • Within this above-state-average declaration file, major disaster leads with 25 of 31 records; the category describes past federal action, not the next likely hazard. Missouri overview
  • The state benchmark and national rank point the same way: this count tops the Missouri mean and the totals for 88% of 3,266 U.S. counties. Most-disaster rankings
  • The large NFIP claims file and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records; the guide explains where they overlap and where they do not. 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.

All federal data sources used on this page
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.