FEMA Records
13
Low volume
Colorado · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Washington County, CO
13 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 13
- FEMA declarations
- 9
- Major disasters
- 12
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Washington County. Its 13 FEMA declarations are 27% above the Colorado county mean and exceed the count for 17% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 12%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 12%
- 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
- 6
- flood declarations, the most common hazard here
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 08121 · Washington County 13 declarations · rank 2641/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 13
- MAJOR-MID 69%
- RANK-LOWER #2,641
- PHOTO-FINISH Clarke
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +27%
Nearest declaration peer: Clarke, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Colorado state profile
Washington County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Washington 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
- Washington · this county 13
Washington · this county
13 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Washington County carries 13 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2641 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Washington County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Washington County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Washington 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
Washington County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Washington County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $1.6M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Hail 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 Washington County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's National Risk Index places this county in the low end of the national distribution, composite score 12.0/100 (Very Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $4.3M in annualized losses). Two modifiers shape how that exposure becomes real-world harm here: social vulnerability (Relatively High) and community resilience (Relatively Moderate). Among the 18 modeled hazards, Hail carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 6.6 times per year here, based on 250 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
No paid-claim row for this county appears in the NFIP county table used by PlainHazard. That absence is not evidence that flooding never occurred: the register observes claims under federal flood-insurance policies, not uninsured losses, emergency reports, or every flood outside the program. The FEMA declaration history below is therefore the available federal-action record on this page.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Washington County's 13 federal records stand 27% above the Colorado county mean of 10.2. 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.
60 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Washington County, CO · 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 High
16/25
13 declarations (1.3x state county average of 10)
Major Disaster Share High
17/25
9 of 13 declarations are major disasters (69%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Washington County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Washington 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
69%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
12
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Washington 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 6.6 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.9 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,582 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 2.7 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 53 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 11 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 11 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | an average of 3.2 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,688 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 48 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 6
Biological 2
Snowstorm 1
Coastal Storm 1
Fire 1
Severe Storm 1
Tornado 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Washington County's record, 46% 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 - 9 69.2%
of all 13 declarations
Emergency - 4 30.8%
of all 13 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4731 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Flood | 2023-08-25 |
| 4498 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-28 |
| 3436 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4229 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2015-07-16 |
| 4145 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2013-09-14 |
| 3365 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | EM | Flood | 2013-09-12 |
| 3270 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2007-01-07 |
| 3224 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-05 |
| 1421 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2002-06-19 |
| 1374 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 2001-05-17 |
| 385 | HEAVY RAINS, SNOWMELT AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-05-23 |
| 261 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-05-19 |
| 200 | TORNADOES, SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 1965-06-19 |
Storm Events in Colorado
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Washington County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 4,913 | 0 | 100 | $2.9B |
| Winter Weather | 2,620 | 3 | 23 | $22.5K |
| High Wind | 1,992 | 5 | 6 | $20.9M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 1,741 | 2 | 11 | $5.4M |
| Winter Storm | 1,497 | 0 | 0 | $848.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 12.0/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$4.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hail Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Very Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Lightning 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: Hail
Hail is among the most expensive hazards in the model relative to how little it threatens life. It concentrates on roofs, vehicles and crops, and a single severe storm can generate an insurance loss across a metropolitan area without a single injury.
Worth noting for Washington County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Hail 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
Washington County's closest FEMA peer: Haskell County, KS
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Washington County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Washington County shows 13 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Washington County: 9 of 13 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Washington County: NRI composite 12.0 (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 Washington County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Washington 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: 12.0 (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, Washington 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 Washington County?
The most common disaster type in Washington County is Flood, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Snowstorm (1), Coastal Storm (1).
How does Washington County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Colorado average?
FEMA lists 13 declaration records for Washington County. That is 27% above the Colorado county mean of 10.2. Its count is also 37% 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 Washington County received?
Washington County has received 9 major disaster declarations, representing 69% of all 13 disaster declarations.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Washington County?
No. In Washington County, Hail has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $1.6M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Washington County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Washington County was 2013, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Washington County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Washington County, Colorado has an overall risk score of 12.0 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively High, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $4.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Washington County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Washington County as of the latest release is Hail (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Strong Wind (Relatively Moderate) and Wildfire (Very Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hail here at an average of 6.6 times per year, drawn from 250 historical events on record. 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.
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 Washington County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Colorado profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events