FEMA Records
31
High volume
North Dakota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Stutsman County, ND
31 FEMA disaster declarations (1966-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 31
- FEMA declarations
- 27
- Major disasters
- 46
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Stutsman County. Its 31 FEMA declarations are 20% above the North Dakota county mean and exceed the count for 88% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 46%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 46%
- 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
- 127
- 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 38093 · Stutsman County 31 declarations · rank 361/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 31
- MAJOR-HEAVY 87%
- RANK-MID #361
- PHOTO-FINISH Galveston
- NRI-LOW 46
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +20%
Nearest declaration peer: Galveston, TX (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · North Dakota state profile
Stutsman County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Stutsman County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Galveston · near 31
Galveston · near
31 declarations
- Orange · near 31
Orange · near
31 declarations
- Stutsman · this county 31
Stutsman · this county
31 declarations
- Woodward · near 31
Woodward · near
31 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Stutsman County carries 31 FEMA declaration records, ranked 361 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Stutsman County ranks in the national declaration registry
Stutsman County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Stutsman County
31 Top 12% higher than 88% 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
Stutsman County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Stutsman County is led by Cold Wave (about $6.9M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Winter Weather carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High). 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 Stutsman County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 127 paid claims, totaling $757.7K. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $6.0K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Stutsman County's 31 federal records stand 20% above the North Dakota county mean of 25.9. 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
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 46.4/100 for this county (Relatively Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Relatively Low (roughly $16.3M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively Low) and community resilience (Relatively High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Winter Weather stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 23 times per year here, based on 435 historical events on record.
74 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Stutsman County, ND · 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
15/25
31 declarations (1.2x state county average of 26)
Major Disaster Share Very High
22/25
27 of 31 declarations are major disasters (87%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Stutsman County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Stutsman 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
87%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
46
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Stutsman 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 High | an average of 23 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.8 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 19 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | roughly once every 1 years |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1,931 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | an average of 1 time per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 9.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 1.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 8,000 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 30 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 15
Severe Storm 11
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Coastal Storm 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Stutsman County's record, 48% 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 - 27 87.1%
of all 31 declarations
Emergency - 4 12.9%
of all 31 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 4 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 2 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
Show 10 earlier declaration years
| 1997 | 2 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 2 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
| 1966 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4895 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2025-10-22 |
| 4888 | SEVERE STORM, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2025-09-11 |
| 4760 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Winter Storm | 2024-02-15 |
| 4660 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-07-13 |
| 4553 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2020-07-09 |
| 4509 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-01 |
| 3477 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4475 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2020-01-21 |
| 1981 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2011-05-10 |
| 1907 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2010-04-30 |
| 3309 | FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2010-03-14 |
| 1829 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-03-24 |
| 1713 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-07-17 |
| 3247 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-13 |
| 1431 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-09-10 |
| 1376 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, & GROUND SATURATION | DR | Flood | 2001-05-28 |
| 1334 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING AND GROUND SATURATION | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-06-27 |
| 1279 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, SNOW, ICE, GROUND SATURATION, LANSLIDES, MUDSLIDES, AND TOR | DR | Flood | 1999-06-08 |
| 1220 | FLOODING, GROUND SATURATION,SEVERE STORMS | DR | Flood | 1998-06-15 |
| 1174 | SEVERE FLOODING,SEVERE WINTER STORMS, SNOWMELT, SPRING RAINS | DR | Flood | 1997-04-07 |
Show 11 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1157 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND BLIZZARD CONDITIONS | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-12 |
| 1118 | SEVERE STORMS,FLOODING, & ICE JAMS | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-06-05 |
| 1050 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND GROUND SATURATION | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-05-16 |
| 1032 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-07-01 |
| 1001 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-26 |
| 581 | SEVERE STORMS, SNOWMELT & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1979-04-26 |
| 3016 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1976-07-21 |
| 475 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-07-11 |
| 469 | FLOODING FROM RAINS & SNOWMELT | DR | Flood | 1975-05-24 |
| 256 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-04-18 |
| 216 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1966-03-23 |
Storm Events in North Dakota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Stutsman County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 2,705 | 0 | 2 | $116.1M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 2,459 | 2 | 10 | $67.0M |
| High Wind | 1,184 | 1 | 1 | $2.9M |
| Heavy Snow | 925 | 0 | 3 | $650.0K |
| Blizzard | 905 | 2 | 2 | $60.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
127
Total Paid
$757.7K
Avg Per Claim
$6.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 46.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$16.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Winter Weather Relatively High
Hail Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Lightning 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 Stutsman County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Winter Weather carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively 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
Stutsman County's closest FEMA peer: Ste. Genevieve County, MO
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Stutsman County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Stutsman County shows 31 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Stutsman County: 27 of 31 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Stutsman County: NRI composite 46.4 (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 Stutsman County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Stutsman 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: 46.4 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 31. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Stutsman County's NFIP claims file (127 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 Stutsman County?
The most common disaster type in Stutsman County is Flood, with 15 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (11), Biological (2), Winter Storm (1).
How does Stutsman County's FEMA declaration record compare with the North Dakota average?
FEMA lists 31 declaration records for Stutsman County. That is 20% above the North Dakota county mean of 25.9. 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 Stutsman County received?
Stutsman County has received 27 major disaster declarations, representing 87% of all 31 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Stutsman County filed?
Stutsman County has 127 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $757.7K in payments, with an average of $6.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Stutsman County?
No. In Stutsman County, Winter Weather has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Cold Wave leads Expected Annual Loss at about $6.9M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Stutsman County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Stutsman County was 2020, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1966 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Stutsman County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Stutsman County, North Dakota has an overall risk score of 46.4 out of 100 (Relatively Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $16.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Stutsman County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Stutsman County as of the latest release is Winter Weather (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively Moderate) and Cold Wave (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts winter weather here at an average of 23 times per year, drawn from 435 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 Stutsman County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · North Dakota profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events