FEMA Records
11
Low volume
Utah · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Tooele County, UT
11 FEMA disaster declarations (1977-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 11
- FEMA declarations
- 5
- Major disasters
- 49
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Tooele County. Its 11 FEMA declarations are 30% above the Utah county mean and exceed the count for 12% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 49%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 49%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 11
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 7
- 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 49045 · Tooele County 11 declarations · rank 2823/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 11
- MAJOR-LIGHT 45%
- RANK-LOWER #2,823
- PHOTO-FINISH Meeker
- NRI-LOW 49
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +30%
Nearest declaration peer: Meeker, MN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Utah state profile
Tooele County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Tooele County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Davis · near 11
Davis · near
11 declarations
- Meeker · near 11
Meeker · near
11 declarations
- Tooele · this county 11
Tooele · this county
11 declarations
- Wasatch · near 11
Wasatch · near
11 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Tooele County carries 11 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2823 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Tooele County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Tooele County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Tooele County
11 12th percentile higher than 12% 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
Tooele County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Tooele County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 48.9/100 for this county (Relatively Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Relatively Low (roughly $26.5M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very Low) and community resilience (Very High) 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 61 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 7 claims and $62.5K 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. Tooele County's 11 federal records stand 30% above the Utah county mean of 8.5. 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.
48 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Tooele County, UT · 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
8/30
11 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.5x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
16/25
11 declarations (1.3x state county average of 8)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
11/25
5 of 11 declarations are major disasters (45%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Tooele County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Tooele 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
45%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
49
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Tooele 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 61 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 12 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 79 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 30 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 30 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 2.9 modeled event-days per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 95 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | an average of 2.8 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 10,000 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 9 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 21 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 4
Fire 3
Biological 2
Coastal Storm 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Tooele County's record, 36% 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 - 5 45.5%
of all 11 declarations
Fire Management - 3 27.3%
of all 11 declarations
Emergency - 3 27.3%
of all 11 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 1984 | 1 | |
| 1983 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 11 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 11 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5641 | CHERRY FIRE | FM | Fire | 2026-06-27 |
| 5639 | IRON FIRE | FM | Fire | 2026-06-21 |
| 4525 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-04 |
| 3478 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 5065 | ANACONDA FIRE | FM | Fire | 2014-07-21 |
| 4011 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2011-08-08 |
| 3223 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-05 |
| 1598 | FLOODING AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2005-08-01 |
| 720 | SEVERE STORMS, MUDSLIDES, LANDSLIDES & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1984-08-17 |
| 680 | SEVERE STORMS, LANDSLIDES & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1983-04-30 |
| 3024 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-01-20 |
Storm Events in Utah
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Tooele County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 1,382 | 3 | 7 | $2.2M |
| Flash Flood | 536 | 29 | 17 | $101.2M |
| High Wind | 496 | 4 | 60 | $12.7M |
| Heavy Snow | 488 | 1 | 2 | $2.4M |
| Winter Storm | 344 | 1 | 36 | $435.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
7
Total Paid
$62.5K
Avg Per Claim
$8.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 48.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$26.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Avalanche Very Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Volcanic Activity Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Hail Very Low
Cold Wave 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.
Worth noting for Tooele County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Wildfire 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
Tooele County's closest FEMA peer: Loving County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Tooele County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Tooele County shows 11 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Tooele County: 5 of 11 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Tooele County: NRI composite 48.9 (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 Tooele County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Tooele 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: 48.9 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 11. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 11 FEMA declarations, Tooele 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 Tooele County?
The most common disaster type in Tooele County is Flood, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Fire (3), Biological (2), Coastal Storm (1).
How does Tooele County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Utah average?
FEMA lists 11 declaration records for Tooele County. That is 30% above the Utah county mean of 8.5. Its count is also 47% 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 Tooele County received?
Tooele County has received 5 major disaster declarations, representing 45% of all 11 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Tooele County filed?
Tooele County has 7 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $62.5K in payments, with an average of $8.9K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Tooele County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Tooele County was 2005, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1977 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Tooele County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Tooele County, Utah has an overall risk score of 48.9 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $26.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Tooele County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Tooele County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Winter Weather (Relatively High) and Earthquake (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 61 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 Tooele County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Utah profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events