FEMA Records
12
Low volume
Kansas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Thomas County, KS
12 FEMA disaster declarations (1993-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 12
- FEMA declarations
- 9
- Major disasters
- 9
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Thomas County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 12 declarations, more than 14% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 33% below the Kansas county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 9%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 9%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 12
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 3
- 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 20193 · Thomas County 12 declarations · rank 2807/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 12
- MAJOR-MID 75%
- RANK-LOWER #2,807
- PHOTO-FINISH Johnson
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -33%
Nearest declaration peer: Johnson, KS (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Kansas state profile
Thomas County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Thomas County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Crane · near 12
Crane · near
12 declarations
- Johnson · near 12
Johnson · near
12 declarations
- Seward · near 12
Seward · near
12 declarations
- Thomas · this county 12
Thomas · this county
12 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Thomas County carries 12 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2807 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Thomas County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Thomas County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Thomas County
12 14th percentile higher than 14% 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
Thomas County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Thomas 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 9.4/100 (Very Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $6.8M in annualized losses). Two modifiers shape how that exposure becomes real-world harm here: social vulnerability (Very Low) and community resilience (Relatively High). Among the 18 modeled hazards, Hail carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 8.6 times per year here, based on 328 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 3 claims and $0 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 Kansas county averages 18.0 federal declaration records, while Thomas County has 12. The gap is 33% 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.
49 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Thomas County, KS · 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
12 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.6x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
8/25
12 declarations (0.7x state county average of 18)
Major Disaster Share Very High
19/25
9 of 12 declarations are major disasters (75%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Thomas County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Thomas 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
75%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
9
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Thomas 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 8.6 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 82 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 13 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 5.3 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 4.7 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 45 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,857 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 6,373 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 1.8 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 9 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 7
Biological 2
Snowstorm 1
Hurricane 1
Flood 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Thomas 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 - 9 75.0%
of all 12 declarations
Emergency - 3 25.0%
of all 12 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 12 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 12 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4824 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-09-24 |
| 4747 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-10-26 |
| 4504 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-29 |
| 3481 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4319 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, SNOWSTORM, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Snowstorm | 2017-06-16 |
| 1776 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-07-09 |
| 3282 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | EM | Severe Storm | 2007-12-12 |
| 1675 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-01-07 |
| 1626 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-01-26 |
| 3236 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1535 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-08-03 |
| 1000 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-22 |
Storm Events in Kansas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Thomas County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 8,265 | 0 | 9 | $24.2M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 7,987 | 3 | 34 | $30.6M |
| High Wind | 1,553 | 1 | 7 | $10.2M |
| Drought | 1,272 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Flash Flood | 1,037 | 6 | 9 | $35.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
3
Total Paid
$0
Avg Per Claim
$0
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 9.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$6.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hail Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Landslide 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: Hail
Hail is among the most expensive hazards in the model relative to how little it threatens life. It concentrates on roofs, vehicles and crops, and a single severe storm can generate an insurance loss across a metropolitan area without a single injury.
For Thomas County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hail is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Moderate), and Severe Storm 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
Thomas County's closest FEMA peer: Fond du Lac County, WI
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Thomas County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Thomas County shows 12 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Thomas County: 9 of 12 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Thomas County: NRI composite 9.4 (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 Thomas County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Thomas 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: 9.4 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 12. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 12 FEMA declarations, Thomas 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 Thomas County?
The most common disaster type in Thomas County is Severe Storm, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Snowstorm (1), Hurricane (1).
How does Thomas County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Kansas average?
The typical Kansas county has 18.0 FEMA declaration records; Thomas County has 12, or 33% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 42% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Thomas County received?
Thomas County has received 9 major disaster declarations, representing 75% of all 12 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Thomas County filed?
Thomas County has 3 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $0 in payments, with an average of $0 per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Thomas County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Thomas County was 2008, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1993 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Thomas County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Thomas County, Kansas has an overall risk score of 9.4 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $6.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Thomas County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Thomas County as of the latest release is Hail (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Moderate) and Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hail here at an average of 8.6 times per year, drawn from 328 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Thomas County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Kansas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events