FEMA Records
11
Low volume
Oregon · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Wallowa County, OR
11 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 11
- FEMA declarations
- 7
- Major disasters
- 34
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Wallowa County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 11 declarations, more than 12% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 34% below the Oregon county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 34%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 34%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 11
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 16
- 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 41063 · Wallowa County 11 declarations · rank 2872/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 11
- MAJOR-MID 64%
- RANK-LOWER #2,872
- PHOTO-FINISH Meeker
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -34%
Nearest declaration peer: Meeker, MN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Oregon state profile
Wallowa County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Wallowa County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Davis · near 11
Davis · near
11 declarations
- Meeker · near 11
Meeker · near
11 declarations
- Wallowa · this county 11
Wallowa · this county
11 declarations
- Wasatch · near 11
Wasatch · near
11 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Wallowa County carries 11 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2872 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Wallowa County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Wallowa County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Wallowa County
11 12th percentile higher than 12% 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
Wallowa County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Wallowa County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $4.6M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Wildfire 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 Wallowa County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 34.0/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $7.9M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very High) and community resilience (Relatively High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. 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 190 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 16 claims and $17.5K 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 Oregon county averages 16.6 federal declaration records, while Wallowa County has 11. The gap is 34% 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.
47 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Wallowa County, OR · 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
8/30
11 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.5x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
8/25
11 declarations (0.7x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share High
16/25
7 of 11 declarations are major disasters (64%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Wallowa County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Wallowa 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
64%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
34
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Wallowa 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 190 years |
| Avalanche | Relatively High | roughly once every 15 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | an average of 1.7 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 18 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 329 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 30 years |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 2.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Drought | Very Low | 29 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 21 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 11 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 4
Biological 2
Severe Storm 2
Fire 1
Coastal Storm 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Wallowa County's record, 36% 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 - 7 63.6%
of all 11 declarations
Emergency - 3 27.3%
of all 11 declarations
Fire Management - 1 9.1%
of all 11 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 11 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 11 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4519 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2020-04-03 |
| 4499 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-28 |
| 3429 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 5107 | GRIZZLY BEAR FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2015-08-21 |
| 3228 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-07 |
| 1510 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-02-19 |
| 1160 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, LAND AND MUDSLIDES, FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-23 |
| 1099 | HIGH WINDS, SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1996-02-09 |
| 3039 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-04-29 |
| 413 | SEVERE STORMS, SNOWMELT & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1974-01-25 |
| 184 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1964-12-24 |
Storm Events in Oregon
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Wallowa County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 859 | 13 | 10 | $3.2B |
| Heavy Snow | 654 | 2 | 0 | $139.2M |
| Frost/Freeze | 391 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Wildfire | 311 | 15 | 38 | $15.1M |
| Flood | 244 | 3 | 1 | $68.4M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
16
Total Paid
$17.5K
Avg Per Claim
$1.1K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 34.0/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$7.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Avalanche Relatively High
Landslide Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Hail Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Drought Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Strong Wind 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.
Worth noting for Wallowa County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Wildfire carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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
Wallowa County's closest FEMA peer: Eddy County, NM
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Wallowa County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Wallowa County shows 11 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Wallowa County: 7 of 11 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Wallowa County: NRI composite 34.0 (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 Wallowa County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Wallowa 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: 34.0 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 11. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 11 FEMA declarations, Wallowa 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 Wallowa County?
The most common disaster type in Wallowa County is Flood, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Severe Storm (2), Fire (1).
How does Wallowa County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Oregon average?
The typical Oregon county has 16.6 FEMA declaration records; Wallowa County has 11, or 34% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 47% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Wallowa County received?
Wallowa County has received 7 major disaster declarations, representing 64% of all 11 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Wallowa County filed?
Wallowa County has 16 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $17.5K in payments, with an average of $1.1K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Wallowa County?
No. In Wallowa County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $4.6M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Wallowa County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Wallowa County was 2020, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Wallowa County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Wallowa County, Oregon has an overall risk score of 34.0 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very High, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $7.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Wallowa County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Wallowa County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Avalanche (Relatively High) and Landslide (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 190 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 Wallowa County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Oregon profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events