FEMA Records
15
Below median
New Mexico · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Valencia County, NM
15 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 15
- FEMA declarations
- 4
- Major disasters
- 82
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Valencia County. Its 15 FEMA declarations are 20% above the New Mexico county mean and exceed the count for 23% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 18%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 18%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 15
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 125
- 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 35061 · Valencia County 15 declarations · rank 2476/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 15
- MAJOR-LIGHT 27%
- RANK-LOWER #2,476
- PHOTO-FINISH Polk
- NRI-MID 82
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-ABOVE +20%
Nearest declaration peer: Polk, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · New Mexico state profile
Valencia County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Valencia County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Flathead · near 15
Flathead · near
15 declarations
- Murray · near 15
Murray · near
15 declarations
- Polk · near 15
Polk · near
15 declarations
- Valencia · this county 15
Valencia · this county
15 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Valencia County carries 15 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2476 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Valencia County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Valencia County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Valencia County
15 23rd percentile higher than 23% 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
Valencia County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Valencia County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $29.5M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very Low), while Earthquake carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). 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 Valencia County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 125 paid claims, totaling $982.3K. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $7.9K 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. Valencia County's 15 federal records stand 20% above the New Mexico county mean of 12.5. 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 82.3/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $37.5M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively High and community resilience Very Low, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Earthquake carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 203 years here.
46 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Valencia County, NM · 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
11/30
15 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
15/25
15 declarations (1.2x state county average of 12)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
7/25
4 of 15 declarations are major disasters (27%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Valencia County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Valencia 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
27%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
82
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Valencia 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 203 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 58 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1,207 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 7.6 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 2.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 53 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 14 years |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 5,000 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 18 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 9
Flood 2
Biological 2
Severe Storm 1
Hurricane 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Valencia County's record, 60% 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).
Fire Management - 7 46.7%
of all 15 declarations
Emergency - 4 26.7%
of all 15 declarations
Major Disaster - 4 26.7%
of all 15 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 4 | |
| 2022 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 2 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 15 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 15 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3628 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND LANDSLIDES | EM | Flood | 2025-07-10 |
| 5594 | COTTON 2 FIRE | FM | Fire | 2025-06-22 |
| 5593 | DESERT WILLOW FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2025-06-21 |
| 5579 | RIO GRANDE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2025-04-18 |
| 4652 | WILDFIRES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, FLOODING, MUDFLOWS, AND DEBRIS FLOWS | DR | Fire | 2022-05-04 |
| 5430 | BIG HOLE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2022-04-11 |
| 4529 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-05 |
| 3460 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 5281 | IRONWORKS FIRE | FM | Fire | 2019-03-08 |
| 2682 | BELEN FIRE | FM | Fire | 2007-02-24 |
| 1659 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-08-30 |
| 3229 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-07 |
| 3154 | SEVERE FIRE THREATS | EM | Fire | 2000-05-10 |
| 2295 | RIO GRANDE FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2000-04-20 |
| 380 | SEVERE STORMS, SNOW MELT & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-05-11 |
Storm Events in New Mexico
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Valencia County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drought | 3,382 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| High Wind | 2,351 | 0 | 3 | $18.9M |
| Hail | 1,669 | 1 | 24 | $17.2M |
| Heavy Snow | 986 | 6 | 72 | $2.5M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 952 | 1 | 13 | $25.1M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
125
Total Paid
$982.3K
Avg Per Claim
$7.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 82.3/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$37.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Earthquake Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Tornado Very Low
Volcanic Activity Very Low
Avalanche Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Ice Storm 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: Earthquake
Earthquake is the model's clearest example of a hazard with no season and no warning. Its expected loss is driven less by how often shaking occurs than by how much of the building stock predates modern seismic codes, so exposure can be high in places where nothing has happened for a long time.
Worth noting for Valencia County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Earthquake carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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
Valencia County's closest FEMA peer: Fayette County, PA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Valencia County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Valencia County: NRI composite 82.3 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar Major-disaster share
Valencia County: 4 of 15 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Valencia County shows 15 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
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 Valencia County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Valencia 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: 82.3 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 15. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Valencia County's NFIP claims file (125 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 Valencia County?
The most common disaster type in Valencia County is Fire, with 9 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (2), Biological (2), Severe Storm (1).
How does Valencia County's FEMA declaration record compare with the New Mexico average?
FEMA lists 15 declaration records for Valencia County. That is 20% above the New Mexico county mean of 12.5. Its count is also 28% 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 Valencia County received?
Valencia County has received 4 major disaster declarations, representing 27% of all 15 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Valencia County filed?
Valencia County has 125 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $982.3K in payments, with an average of $7.9K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Valencia County?
No. In Valencia County, Earthquake has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $29.5M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Valencia County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Valencia County was 2025, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2025.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Valencia County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Valencia County, New Mexico has an overall risk score of 82.3 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively High, while community resilience comes in at Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $37.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Valencia County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Valencia County is Earthquake (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Riverine Flooding (Relatively Moderate) and Lightning (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts earthquake here at roughly once every 203 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 Valencia County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · New Mexico profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events