FEMA Records
32
Very high volume
California · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Trinity County, CA
32 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 32
- FEMA declarations
- 21
- Major disasters
- 79
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Trinity County. Its 32 FEMA declarations are 12% above the California county mean and exceed the count for 89% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 21%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 21%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 32
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 23
- 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.
How does Trinity County compare?
Trinity County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
32 Top 11% higher than 89% 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 · 2026-08-03
Trinity County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the California county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Trinity County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $13.2M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Landslide 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 Trinity County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 79.5/100 (Relatively Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $29.1M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very High and community resilience Relatively Low, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Landslide stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 18 times per year here.
Declaration frequency
The FEMA register is busy by both local and national comparisons. It contains 32 entries for Trinity County, including 21 Major Disaster records, 12% above the California county mean. Across the 58-year span, that works out to 0.6 declarations a year. Fire leads the file with 9 entries. Declaration type records the federal action taken, not every assistance program approved.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 23 claims and $72.6K 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. Trinity County's 32 federal records stand 12% above the California county mean of 28.5. 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.
71 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Trinity County, CA · 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) Very High
23/30
32 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.5x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
14/25
32 declarations (1.1x state county average of 29)
Major Disaster Share High
16/25
21 of 32 declarations are major disasters (66%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Trinity County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. California Avg
+12%
State avg: 28.5
vs. National Avg
+54%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.6
Over 58 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Trinity 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
66%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
79
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Trinity 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Landslide | Relatively High | an average of 18 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively High | roughly once every 39 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 29 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 5 years |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 833 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 4.8 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 9.6 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 24 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 11 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 30 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 73 years |
| Drought | No Rating | 58 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
Severe Storm 9
Flood 9
Fire 9
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Coastal Storm 1
Drought 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Trinity County's record, 28% 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 - 21 65.6%
of all 32 declarations
Emergency - 6 18.8%
of all 32 declarations
Fire Management - 5 15.6%
of all 32 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 3 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2019 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 4 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 2 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
Show 6 earlier declaration years
| 1986 | 1 | |
| 1983 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1970 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 32 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 32 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4699 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-04-03 |
| 3592 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | EM | Flood | 2023-03-10 |
| 4683 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2023-01-14 |
| 4610 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2021-08-24 |
| 5412 | MONUMENT FIRE | FM | Fire | 2021-08-17 |
| 4558 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2020-08-22 |
| 4482 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-22 |
| 3428 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4434 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2019-05-17 |
| 4431 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2019-05-01 |
| 5259 | CARR FIRE | FM | Fire | 2018-07-23 |
| 5199 | HELENA FIRE | FM | Fire | 2017-09-01 |
| 4308 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2017-04-01 |
| 4305 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2017-03-16 |
| 4301 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2017-02-14 |
| 5076 | OREGON FIRE | FM | Fire | 2014-08-25 |
| 3287 | WILDFIRES | EM | Fire | 2008-06-28 |
| 2662 | JUNCTION FIRE | FM | Fire | 2006-07-30 |
| 1628 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, MUDSLIDES, AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-02-03 |
| 3248 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
Show 12 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3140 | CA-WILDFIRES-08/25/1999 | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
| 1203 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-02-09 |
| 1155 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, MUD AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-04 |
| 1046 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING LANDSLIDES, MUD FLOW | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-03-12 |
| 1044 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, MUD FLOWS | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-01-10 |
| 979 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, MUD & LAND SLIDES, & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-02-03 |
| 758 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-02-21 |
| 677 | COASTAL STORMS, FLOODS, SLIDES & TORNADOES | DR | Coastal Storm | 1983-02-09 |
| 3023 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-01-20 |
| 412 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1974-01-25 |
| 283 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1970-02-16 |
| 183 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1964-12-24 |
Storm Events in California
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Trinity County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 4,070 | 13 | 27 | $228.2M |
| Flood | 3,132 | 26 | 25 | $985.1M |
| Heavy Snow | 1,814 | 6 | 0 | $1.6M |
| Dense Fog | 1,605 | 52 | 148 | $2.8M |
| Drought | 1,421 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
23
Total Paid
$72.6K
Avg Per Claim
$3.2K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 79.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$29.1M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Landslide Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Volcanic Activity Very Low
Avalanche Very Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Lightning Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Hail Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Cold Wave No Rating
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: Landslide
Landslide risk is a function of slope, soil and water, so it is usually a SECOND-ORDER hazard: it is triggered by the rainfall, snowmelt, wildfire burn scars or seismic shaking that came first. That is why a county can carry high landslide exposure whose realized damage is recorded under a flood or storm declaration instead.
Worth noting for Trinity County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Landslide carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively High), while the county's declaration history is led by Fire. 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
Trinity County's closest FEMA peer: Plymouth County, MA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Trinity County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Trinity County shows 32 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Trinity County: 21 of 32 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Trinity County: NRI composite 79.5 (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 Trinity County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 32 FEMA declarations, Trinity 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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Trinity County?
The most common disaster type in Trinity County is Fire, with 9 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (9), Flood (9), Biological (2).
How does Trinity County's FEMA declaration record compare with the California average?
FEMA lists 32 declaration records for Trinity County. That is 12% above the California county mean of 28.5. Its count is also 54% 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 Trinity County received?
Trinity County has received 21 major disaster declarations, representing 66% of all 32 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Trinity County filed?
Trinity County has 23 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $72.6K in payments, with an average of $3.2K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Trinity County?
No. In Trinity County, Landslide has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $13.2M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Trinity County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Trinity County was 2017, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Trinity County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Trinity County, California has an overall risk score of 79.5 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very High; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $29.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Trinity County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Trinity County as of the latest release is Landslide (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Relatively High) and Earthquake (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts landslide here at an average of 18 times per year. 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.
What this means for Trinity County
Trinity County, CA has 32 federal declaration records, 12% more than the California county mean of 29; its history sits in PlainHazard's high activity band.
- Within this above-state-average declaration file, major disaster leads with 21 of 32 records; the category describes past federal action, not the next likely hazard. California overview
- The state benchmark and national rank point the same way: this count tops the California mean and the totals for 89% of 3,266 U.S. counties. Most-disaster rankings
- A short NFIP claims file cannot establish low flood exposure; the data guide explains the limits of each federal measure. Disaster-data guide
An above-average declaration count records past federal responses; it does not predict the next event. Current warnings come from the National Weather Service and local emergency officials.
PlainHazard derives this profile from FEMA's Disaster Declarations Summaries and National Risk Index data. The declaration comparison covers 3,266 U.S. counties and county equivalents in this database, refreshed as of 2026-08-03. Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
All federal data sources used on this page
- FEMA OpenFEMA, Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 - all federally-declared disasters for this county. fema.gov/openfema/disaster-declarations
- FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) - per-county per-hazard risk ratings and expected annual loss. hazards.fema.gov/nri
- NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database - state-level storm/severe-weather event records, 2015-2025. ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainHazard Editorial
Verify with FEMA → · Verify with FEMA NRI → · Verify with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.