FEMA Records
17
Below median
Minnesota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Wabasha County, MN
17 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 17
- FEMA declarations
- 15
- Major disasters
- 46
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Wabasha County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 17 declarations, more than 32% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 4% below the Minnesota county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 46%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 46%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 17
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 162
- 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 27157 · Wabasha County 17 declarations · rank 2200/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 17
- MAJOR-HEAVY 88%
- RANK-LOWER #2,200
- PHOTO-FINISH Curry
- NRI-LOW 46
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -4%
Nearest declaration peer: Curry, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Minnesota state profile
Wabasha County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Wabasha County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Curry · near 17
Curry · near
17 declarations
- Murray · near 17
Murray · near
17 declarations
- Wabasha · this county 17
Wabasha · this county
17 declarations
- Washington · near 17
Washington · near
17 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Wabasha County carries 17 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2200 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Wabasha County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Wabasha County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Wabasha County
17 32nd percentile higher than 32% 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
Wabasha County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Wabasha County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $11.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Landslide carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low). 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 Wabasha County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 162 paid claims, totaling $3.4M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $21.0K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Minnesota county averages 17.7 federal declaration records, while Wabasha County has 17. The gap is 4% 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 45.5/100 for this county (Relatively Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Relatively Low (roughly $17.5M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very Low) and community resilience (Very High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Landslide, only reaches Relatively Low on FEMA's scale, none of the 18 modeled hazards stand out here. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 3 years here.
59 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Wabasha County, MN · 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
12/30
17 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
17 declarations (1.0x state county average of 18)
Major Disaster Share Very High
22/25
15 of 17 declarations are major disasters (88%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Wabasha County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Wabasha 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
88%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
46
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Wabasha 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 Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.9 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.8 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 2.1 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 5.9 modeled event-days per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 8.8 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 18 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 3.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 37 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 23,773 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 3,049 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 9
Severe Storm 4
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Tornado 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Wabasha County's record, 53% 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 - 15 88.2%
of all 17 declarations
Emergency - 2 11.8%
of all 17 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 17 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 17 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4797 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2024-06-28 |
| 4722 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2023-07-19 |
| 4531 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-07 |
| 3453 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4442 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-06-12 |
| 1941 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-10-13 |
| 1717 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-08-23 |
| 3242 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 1370 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Flood | 2001-05-16 |
| 1225 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1998-06-23 |
| 1175 | SEVERE FLOODING, HIGH WINDS,SEVERE STORMS | DR | Flood | 1997-04-08 |
| 1116 | FLOODING AND SEVERE STORMS | DR | Flood | 1996-06-01 |
| 993 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1993-06-11 |
| 560 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, HAIL & TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1978-07-08 |
| 446 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1974-07-13 |
| 255 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-04-18 |
| 188 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1965-04-11 |
Storm Events in Minnesota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Wabasha County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,420 | 13 | 25 | $68.2M |
| Hail | 4,203 | 0 | 0 | $34.5M |
| Extreme Cold/Wind Chill | 1,789 | 7 | 4 | $55.0K |
| Winter Storm | 1,695 | 2 | 17 | $10.0M |
| Heavy Snow | 1,190 | 9 | 14 | $1.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
162
Total Paid
$3.4M
Avg Per Claim
$21.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 45.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$17.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Landslide Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Hurricane 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 Wabasha County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Landslide carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Low), 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
Wabasha County's closest FEMA peer: Boone County, IA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Wabasha County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Wabasha County shows 17 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Wabasha County: 15 of 17 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Wabasha County: NRI composite 45.5 (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 Wabasha County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Wabasha 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: 45.5 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 17. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Wabasha County's NFIP claims file (162 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 Wabasha County?
The most common disaster type in Wabasha County is Flood, with 9 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (4), Biological (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Wabasha County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Minnesota average?
The typical Minnesota county has 17.7 FEMA declaration records; Wabasha County has 17, or 4% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 18% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Wabasha County received?
Wabasha County has received 15 major disaster declarations, representing 88% of all 17 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Wabasha County filed?
Wabasha County has 162 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $3.4M in payments, with an average of $21.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Wabasha County?
No. In Wabasha County, Landslide has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $11.3M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Wabasha County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Wabasha County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Wabasha County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Wabasha County, Minnesota has an overall risk score of 45.5 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 $17.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Wabasha County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Wabasha County as of the latest release is Landslide (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively Moderate) and Strong Wind (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts landslide here at roughly once every 3 years. 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Wabasha County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Minnesota profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events