FEMA Records
21
Above median
Washington · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Stevens County, WA
21 FEMA disaster declarations (1974-2021), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 21
- FEMA declarations
- 11
- Major disasters
- 60
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Stevens County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 21 declarations, more than 52% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 16% below the Washington county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 40%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 40%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 21
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 15
- 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 53065 · Stevens County 21 declarations · rank 1515/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 21
- MAJOR-MID 52%
- RANK-LOWER #1,515
- PHOTO-FINISH Montgomery
- NRI-LOW 60
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-BELOW -16%
Nearest declaration peer: Montgomery, IN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Washington 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
- Atascosa · near 21
Atascosa · near
21 declarations
- Mason · near 21
Mason · near
21 declarations
- Montgomery · near 21
Montgomery · near
21 declarations
- Stevens · this county 21
Stevens · this county
21 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Stevens County carries 21 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1515 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
21 Top 48% higher than 52% 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 $10.6M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Wildfire 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
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 60.3/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $18.3M in annualized losses), and a Relatively Moderate social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively Low community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Wildfire carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 194 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 15 claims and $61.4K 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 Washington county averages 24.9 federal declaration records, while Stevens County has 21. The gap is 16% 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.
57 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Stevens County, WA · 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
15/30
21 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
21 declarations (0.8x state county average of 25)
Major Disaster Share High
13/25
11 of 21 declarations are major disasters (52%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 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
52%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
60
Relatively 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 194 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 24 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 3.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 11 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 507 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 30 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 12 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 11 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 21 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 9
Severe Storm 4
Flood 3
Biological 2
Coastal Storm 1
Volcanic Eruption 1
Drought 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Stevens County's record, 43% of its declarations. Wildfire is the one hazard here with its own dedicated federal instrument: the Fire Management Assistance Grant, which appears in this data as an FM record. An FMAG can be authorised while a fire is still burning, on a timescale of hours, because its purpose is to reimburse the cost of fighting a fire that threatens to become a major disaster.
That distinction matters when comparing counties. An FM declaration is not a presidential major disaster declaration and does not carry the same assistance programmes, so a fire-heavy county's total is not directly comparable with a hurricane-heavy county's total unless the declaration types are separated, which is why they are listed separately on this page.
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 52.4%
of all 21 declarations
Fire Management - 6 28.6%
of all 21 declarations
Emergency - 4 19.0%
of all 21 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 2 | |
| 2015 | 3 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 2 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
| 1989 | 1 | |
| 1980 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1974 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 21 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 21 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5411 | FORD CORKSCREW FIRE | FM | Fire | 2021-08-16 |
| 4481 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-22 |
| 3427 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4249 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-01-15 |
| 4243 | WILDFIRES AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Fire | 2015-10-20 |
| 3372 | WILDFIRES | EM | Fire | 2015-08-21 |
| 5108 | RENNER FIRE | FM | Fire | 2015-08-21 |
| 5103 | STEVENS COUNTY FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2015-08-15 |
| 5058 | LAKE SPOKANE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2014-07-10 |
| 2854 | SLIDE CREEK WILDFIRE | FM | Fire | 2010-08-27 |
| 1825 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND RECORD AND NEAR RECORD SNOW | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-03-02 |
| 2663 | VALLEY MILL FIRE | FM | Fire | 2006-08-08 |
| 3227 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-07 |
| 1252 | WA STORMS & FLOODING 5/26/98 | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-10-05 |
| 1172 | HEAVY RAINS, SNOW MELT, FLOODING, LAND & MUD SLIDES | DR | Flood | 1997-04-02 |
| 1159 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, LAND & MUDS SLIDES,FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-17 |
| 922 | FIRES | DR | Fire | 1991-11-13 |
| 822 | HEAVY RAINS, FLOODING & MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 1989-04-14 |
| 623 | VOLCANIC ERUPTION, MT. ST. HELENS | DR | Volcanic Eruption | 1980-05-21 |
| 3037 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-03-31 |
Show 1 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 414 | SEVERE STORMS, SNOWMELT & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1974-01-25 |
Storm Events in Washington
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Stevens County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy Snow | 1,700 | 5 | 7 | $2.3M |
| High Wind | 614 | 15 | 6 | $1.1B |
| Wildfire | 299 | 4 | 4 | $1.8B |
| Winter Weather | 259 | 9 | 62 | $1.1M |
| Flood | 231 | 4 | 0 | $391.2M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
15
Total Paid
$61.4K
Avg Per Claim
$4.1K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 60.3/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$18.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Avalanche Very Low
Drought Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Hail 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: Wildfire
Wildfire risk in the model reflects fuel, terrain, weather and how much development sits in the wildland-urban interface. It is one of the few hazards where the exposure is materially changed by land management and building choices, not only by where the county happens to be.
For Stevens County the two measures on this page point the same way: Wildfire is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Moderate), and Fire declarations also lead its federal record. Where the model and the declaration history agree, the reading is comparatively straightforward, the hazard is both expected and repeatedly realised.
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: Montgomery County, GA
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 21 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Stevens County: 11 of 21 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Stevens County: NRI composite 60.3 (Relatively 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: 60.3 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 21. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 21 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 Fire, with 9 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (4), Flood (3), Biological (2).
How does Stevens County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Washington average?
The typical Washington county has 24.9 FEMA declaration records; Stevens County has 21, or 16% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 1% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Stevens County received?
Stevens County has received 11 major disaster declarations, representing 52% of all 21 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Stevens County filed?
Stevens County has 15 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $61.4K in payments, with an average of $4.1K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Stevens County?
No. In Stevens County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $10.6M. 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 2015, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1974 to 2021.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Stevens County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Stevens County, Washington has an overall risk score of 60.3 out of 100 (Relatively Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Moderate, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $18.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Stevens County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Stevens County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Landslide (Relatively Moderate) and Riverine Flooding (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 194 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 Stevens County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Washington profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events