FEMA Records
13
Low volume
Indiana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Wabash County, IN
13 FEMA disaster declarations (1999-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 13
- FEMA declarations
- 7
- Major disasters
- 41
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Wabash County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 13 declarations, more than 17% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 24% below the Indiana county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 41%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 41%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 13
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 46
- 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 18169 · Wabash County 13 declarations · rank 2711/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 13
- MAJOR-MID 54%
- RANK-LOWER #2,711
- PHOTO-FINISH Clarke
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -24%
Nearest declaration peer: Clarke, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Indiana state profile
Wabash County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Wabash County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Bristol (city) · near 13
Bristol (city) · near
13 declarations
- Clarke · near 13
Clarke · near
13 declarations
- Douglas · near 13
Douglas · near
13 declarations
- Wabash · this county 13
Wabash · this county
13 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Wabash County carries 13 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2711 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Wabash County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Wabash County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Wabash County
13 17th percentile higher than 17% 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
Wabash County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Wabash County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $5.8M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Tornado 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 Wabash County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 41.0/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $12.3M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively Moderate) and community resilience (Very High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Tornado carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 3 years here, based on 16 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 46 claims and $472.9K 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 Indiana county averages 17.1 federal declaration records, while Wabash County has 13. The gap is 24% 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.
46 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Wabash County, IN · 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
13 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.6x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
9/25
13 declarations (0.8x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share High
13/25
7 of 13 declarations are major disasters (54%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Wabash County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Wabash 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
54%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
41
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Wabash 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5.3 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 1.9 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 3.9 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 3.9 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 700 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 11 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 5.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 9.9 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 43 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 59 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 79,363 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 5
Snowstorm 3
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Flood 1
Hurricane 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Wabash County's record, 38% 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 - 7 53.8%
of all 13 declarations
Emergency - 6 46.2%
of all 13 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 13 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 13 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3641 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4515 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-03 |
| 3456 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4363 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2018-05-04 |
| 4173 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2014-04-22 |
| 1766 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-06-08 |
| 3274 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2007-03-12 |
| 3238 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1573 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2005-01-21 |
| 1520 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-06-03 |
| 1476 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-07-11 |
| 3162 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2001-01-24 |
| 3135 | IN-WINTER STORM 12/23/98 | EM | Snowstorm | 1999-01-15 |
Storm Events in Indiana
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Wabash County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,886 | 16 | 73 | $57.6M |
| Hail | 1,643 | 0 | 0 | $1.7M |
| Winter Weather | 1,166 | 32 | 80 | $2.5M |
| Flood | 850 | 13 | 3 | $16.0M |
| Flash Flood | 648 | 14 | 5 | $97.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
46
Total Paid
$472.9K
Avg Per Claim
$10.3K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 41.0/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$12.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Wildfire 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: Tornado
Tornado exposure is the most spatially concentrated in the model: total destruction along a narrow corridor with intact property either side. County-level averages therefore understate severity badly for anyone actually in the path, and overstate it for everyone else.
For Wabash County the two measures on this page point the same way: Tornado 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
Wabash County's closest FEMA peer: Grant County, NM
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Wabash County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Wabash County shows 13 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Wabash County: 7 of 13 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Wabash County: NRI composite 41.0 (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 Wabash County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Wabash 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: 41.0 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 13. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 13 FEMA declarations, Wabash 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 Wabash County?
The most common disaster type in Wabash County is Severe Storm, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Snowstorm (3), Biological (2), Winter Storm (1).
How does Wabash County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Indiana average?
The typical Indiana county has 17.1 FEMA declaration records; Wabash County has 13, or 24% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 37% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Wabash County received?
Wabash County has received 7 major disaster declarations, representing 54% of all 13 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Wabash County filed?
Wabash County has 46 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $472.9K in payments, with an average of $10.3K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Wabash County?
No. In Wabash County, Tornado has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $5.8M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Wabash County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Wabash County was 2005, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1999 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Wabash County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Wabash County, Indiana has an overall risk score of 41.0 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Moderate and community resilience is Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $12.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Wabash County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Wabash County as of the latest release is Tornado (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Strong Wind (Relatively Moderate) and Drought (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts tornado here at roughly once every 3 years, drawn from 16 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 Wabash County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Indiana profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events