FEMA Records
13
Low volume
Colorado · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Teller County, CO
13 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 13
- FEMA declarations
- 6
- Major disasters
- 39
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Teller County. Its 13 FEMA declarations are 27% above the Colorado county mean and exceed the count for 17% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 39%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 39%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 13
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 10
- 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 08119 · Teller County 13 declarations · rank 2688/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 13
- MAJOR-LIGHT 46%
- RANK-LOWER #2,688
- PHOTO-FINISH Clarke
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-ABOVE +27%
Nearest declaration peer: Clarke, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Colorado state profile
Teller County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Teller County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Bristol (city) · near 13
Bristol (city) · near
13 declarations
- Clarke · near 13
Clarke · near
13 declarations
- Douglas · near 13
Douglas · near
13 declarations
- Teller · this county 13
Teller · this county
13 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Teller County carries 13 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2688 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Teller County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Teller County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Teller County
13 17th percentile higher than 17% 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
Teller County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Teller County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 38.8/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Relatively Low (roughly $16.8M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very Low) and community resilience (Relatively Moderate) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. 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 84 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 10 claims and $12.0K 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. Teller County's 13 federal records stand 27% above the Colorado county mean of 10.2. 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.
55 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Teller County, CO · 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
9/30
13 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.6x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
16/25
13 declarations (1.3x state county average of 10)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
12/25
6 of 13 declarations are major disasters (46%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Teller County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Teller 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
46%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
39
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Teller 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 84 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 69 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 6 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 18 times per year |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 10,000 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,815 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0 modeled event-days per year |
| Drought | No Rating | 38 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
Fire 4
Flood 2
Biological 2
Snowstorm 2
Coastal Storm 1
Drought 1
Tornado 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Teller County's record, 31% 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 - 6 46.2%
of all 13 declarations
Emergency - 5 38.5%
of all 13 declarations
Fire Management - 2 15.4%
of all 13 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 13 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 13 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4731 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Flood | 2023-08-25 |
| 4498 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-28 |
| 3436 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 5247 | CHATEAU FIRE | FM | Fire | 2018-06-30 |
| 4067 | HIGH PARK AND WALDO CANYON WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2012-06-28 |
| 2778 | NASH RANCH FIRE | FM | Fire | 2008-06-27 |
| 3270 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2007-01-07 |
| 3224 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-05 |
| 3185 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2003-04-09 |
| 1421 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2002-06-19 |
| 3025 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-01-29 |
| 385 | HEAVY RAINS, SNOWMELT AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-05-23 |
| 200 | TORNADOES, SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 1965-06-19 |
Storm Events in Colorado
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Teller County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 4,913 | 0 | 100 | $2.9B |
| Winter Weather | 2,620 | 3 | 23 | $22.5K |
| High Wind | 1,992 | 5 | 6 | $20.9M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 1,741 | 2 | 11 | $5.4M |
| Winter Storm | 1,497 | 0 | 0 | $848.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
10
Total Paid
$12.0K
Avg Per Claim
$1.2K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 38.8/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$16.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively High
Hail Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Volcanic Activity Very Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Avalanche Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Drought No Rating
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 Teller 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
Teller County's closest FEMA peer: Runnels County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Teller County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Teller County shows 13 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Teller County: 6 of 13 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Teller County: NRI composite 38.8 (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 Teller County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Teller 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: 38.8 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 13. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 13 FEMA declarations, Teller 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 Teller County?
The most common disaster type in Teller County is Fire, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (2), Biological (2), Snowstorm (2).
How does Teller County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Colorado average?
FEMA lists 13 declaration records for Teller County. That is 27% above the Colorado county mean of 10.2. Its count is also 37% 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 Teller County received?
Teller County has received 6 major disaster declarations, representing 46% of all 13 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Teller County filed?
Teller County has 10 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $12.0K in payments, with an average of $1.2K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Teller County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Teller County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Teller County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Teller County, Colorado has an overall risk score of 38.8 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $16.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Teller County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Teller County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Landslide (Relatively Moderate) and Lightning (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 84 years. 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 Teller County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Colorado profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events