FEMA Records
12
Low volume
Idaho · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Valley County, ID
12 FEMA disaster declarations (1997-2022), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 12
- FEMA declarations
- 6
- Major disasters
- 56
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Valley County. Its 12 FEMA declarations are 44% above the Idaho county mean and exceed the count for 14% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 44%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 44%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 12
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 1
- 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 16085 · Valley County 12 declarations · rank 2759/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 12
- MAJOR-MID 50%
- RANK-LOWER #2,759
- PHOTO-FINISH Johnson
- NRI-LOW 56
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-ABOVE +44%
Nearest declaration peer: Johnson, KS (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Idaho state profile
Valley County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Valley 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
- Valley · this county 12
Valley · this county
12 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Valley County carries 12 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2759 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Valley County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Valley County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Valley 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
Valley County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Valley County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 55.6/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $19.6M in annualized losses), and a Relatively Low social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively High community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. 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 93 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 1 claim 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.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Valley County's 12 federal records stand 44% above the Idaho county mean of 8.3. 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.
53 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Valley County, ID · 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 High
18/25
12 declarations (1.4x state county average of 8)
Major Disaster Share High
13/25
6 of 12 declarations are major disasters (50%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Valley County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Valley 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
50%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
56
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Valley 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 93 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.3 times per year |
| Avalanche | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 15 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 20 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 25 times per year |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 5,000 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 1 modeled event-day per year |
| Drought | Very Low | 24 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 19 years |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Tornado | 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
Fire 5
Biological 2
Flood 2
Severe Storm 2
Hurricane 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Valley County's record, 42% 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 50.0%
of all 12 declarations
Fire Management - 4 33.3%
of all 12 declarations
Emergency - 2 16.7%
of all 12 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5449 | FOUR CORNERS FIRE | FM | Fire | 2022-08-19 |
| 4534 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-09 |
| 3467 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4443 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2019-06-12 |
| 4313 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2017-05-18 |
| 2853 | HURD FIRE | FM | Fire | 2010-08-26 |
| 1927 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-07-27 |
| 2726 | CASCADE FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2007-08-30 |
| 2725 | EAST ZONE FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2007-08-30 |
| 3244 | HURRICANE KATRINA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1341 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2000-09-01 |
| 1154 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, MUD AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-04 |
Storm Events in Idaho
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Valley County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy Snow | 1,495 | 1 | 13 | $100.9M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 1,087 | 9 | 26 | $3.6M |
| Winter Storm | 492 | 4 | 15 | $1.0M |
| High Wind | 396 | 4 | 6 | $10.6M |
| Winter Weather | 297 | 10 | 15 | $1.7M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
1
Total Paid
$0
Avg Per Claim
$0
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 55.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$19.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Avalanche Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Volcanic Activity Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Drought Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Hail Very Low
Tornado 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.
For Valley 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
Valley County's closest FEMA peer: Kalamazoo County, MI
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Valley County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Valley County shows 12 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Valley County: 6 of 12 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Valley County: NRI composite 55.6 (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 Valley County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Valley 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: 55.6 (Relatively 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, Valley 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 Valley County?
The most common disaster type in Valley County is Fire, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Flood (2), Severe Storm (2).
How does Valley County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Idaho average?
FEMA lists 12 declaration records for Valley County. That is 44% above the Idaho county mean of 8.3. Its count is also 42% 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 Valley County received?
Valley County has received 6 major disaster declarations, representing 50% of all 12 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Valley County filed?
Valley County has 1 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 Valley County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Valley County was 2007, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1997 to 2022.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Valley County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Valley County, Idaho has an overall risk score of 55.6 out of 100 (Relatively Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $19.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Valley County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Valley County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Landslide (Relatively Moderate) and Avalanche (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 93 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 Valley County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Idaho profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events