FEMA Records
19
Below median
Minnesota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Stevens County, MN
19 FEMA disaster declarations (1969-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 19
- FEMA declarations
- 16
- Major disasters
- 7
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Stevens County. Its 19 FEMA declarations are 7% above the Minnesota county mean and exceed the count for 41% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 7%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 7%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 19
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 2
- 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 27149 · Stevens County 19 declarations · rank 1836/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 19
- MAJOR-HEAVY 84%
- RANK-LOWER #1,836
- PHOTO-FINISH Bartow
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +7%
Nearest declaration peer: Bartow, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Minnesota state profile
Stevens County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Stevens County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Bartow · near 19
Bartow · near
19 declarations
- Stevens · this county 19
Stevens · this county
19 declarations
- Union · near 19
Union · near
19 declarations
- Warren · near 19
Warren · near
19 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Stevens County carries 19 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1836 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Stevens County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Stevens County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Stevens County
19 41st percentile higher than 41% 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
Stevens County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Stevens County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $2.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Winter Weather 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 Stevens 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 7.0/100 (Very Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $6.4M in annualized losses). Two modifiers shape how that exposure becomes real-world harm here: social vulnerability (Very Low) and community resilience (Very High). Among the 18 modeled hazards, Winter Weather carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 20 times per year here, based on 384 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 2 claims and $7.9K 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.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Stevens County's 19 federal records stand 7% above the Minnesota county mean of 17.7. 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.
63 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Stevens 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
14/30
19 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
13/25
19 declarations (1.1x state county average of 18)
Major Disaster Share Very High
21/25
16 of 19 declarations are major disasters (84%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Stevens County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Stevens 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
84%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
7
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Stevens 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 20 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 3.7 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 14 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 2.7 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 2.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Drought | Very Low | 3.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 17 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 2,128 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 33 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 4,464 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 7
Severe Storm 7
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Snowstorm 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Stevens County's record, 37% 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 - 16 84.2%
of all 19 declarations
Emergency - 3 15.8%
of all 19 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 2 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1969 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 19 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 19 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4722 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2023-07-19 |
| 4666 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-08-09 |
| 4658 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-07-08 |
| 4531 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-07 |
| 3453 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4442 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-06-12 |
| 4131 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2013-07-25 |
| 1982 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2011-05-10 |
| 1900 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2010-04-19 |
| 1830 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-04-09 |
| 1622 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-01-04 |
| 3242 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1370 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Flood | 2001-05-16 |
| 1175 | SEVERE FLOODING, HIGH WINDS,SEVERE STORMS | DR | Flood | 1997-04-08 |
| 1158 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-16 |
| 1078 | HIGH WINDS, FREEZING RAIN, HEAVY SNOWFALL | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-05 |
| 993 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1993-06-11 |
| 3013 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1976-06-17 |
| 255 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-04-18 |
Storm Events in Minnesota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Stevens 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
2
Total Paid
$7.9K
Avg Per Claim
$4.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 7.0/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$6.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Drought Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Lightning 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: Winter Weather
Winter Weather in the model means the accumulation of snow and cold that disrupts rather than destroys: road closures, roof loads, burst pipes and lost heating. Its costs land heavily on transport and on households least able to absorb an interruption.
Worth noting for Stevens County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Winter Weather 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
Stevens County's closest FEMA peer: Greene County, IL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Stevens County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Stevens County shows 19 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Stevens County: 16 of 19 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Stevens County: NRI composite 7.0 (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 Stevens County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Stevens 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: 7.0 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 19. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 19 FEMA declarations, Stevens 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 Stevens County?
The most common disaster type in Stevens County is Flood, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (7), Biological (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Stevens County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Minnesota average?
FEMA lists 19 declaration records for Stevens County. That is 7% above the Minnesota county mean of 17.7. Its count is also 8% below 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 Stevens County received?
Stevens County has received 16 major disaster declarations, representing 84% of all 19 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Stevens County filed?
Stevens County has 2 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $7.9K in payments, with an average of $4.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Stevens County?
No. In Stevens County, Winter Weather has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $2.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Stevens County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Stevens County was 1997, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1969 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Stevens County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Stevens County, Minnesota has an overall risk score of 7.0 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $6.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Stevens County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Stevens County as of the latest release is Winter Weather (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively Low) and Cold Wave (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts winter weather here at an average of 20 times per year, drawn from 384 historical events on record. The underlying methodology weighs historical event frequency against 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 Stevens County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Minnesota profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events