FEMA Records
33
Very high volume
Vermont · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Washington County, VT
33 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 33
- FEMA declarations
- 28
- Major disasters
- 52
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Washington County. Its 33 FEMA declarations are 15% above the Vermont county mean and exceed the count for 91% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 48%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 48%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 33
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 1,234
- 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 50023 · Washington County 33 declarations · rank 280/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 33
- MAJOR-HEAVY 85%
- RANK-UPPER #280
- PHOTO-FINISH Nelson
- NRI-LOW 52
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-ABOVE +15%
Nearest declaration peer: Nelson, ND (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Vermont state profile
Washington County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Washington County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Garvin · near 33
Garvin · near
33 declarations
- Monterey · near 33
Monterey · near
33 declarations
- Nelson · near 33
Nelson · near
33 declarations
- Washington · this county 33
Washington · this county
33 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Washington County carries 33 FEMA declaration records, ranked 280 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Washington County ranks in the national declaration registry
Washington County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Washington County
33 Top 9% higher than 91% 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 $17.6M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Landslide 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?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 1,234 claims and $49.8M in payments. PlainHazard labels 500 or more claims a heavy registry record; that is a reporting bucket, not an official FEMA risk grade. The average paid claim was $40.4K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Washington County's 33 federal records stand 15% above the Vermont county mean of 28.8. 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 52.2/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $22.2M in annualized losses), and a Very Low social-vulnerability profile combined with Very High community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Landslide carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 1.5 times per year here.
72 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Washington County, VT · 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) Very High
24/30
33 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.6x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
14/25
33 declarations (1.1x state county average of 29)
Major Disaster Share Very High
21/25
28 of 33 declarations are major disasters (85%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 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
85%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
52
Relatively 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 22 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 22 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 2.3 times per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 23 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 0.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 755 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 4.3 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 71,243 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 24 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 1.3 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 14
Flood 13
Hurricane 3
Biological 2
Tropical Storm 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Washington County's record, 42% 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 - 28 84.8%
of all 33 declarations
Emergency - 5 15.2%
of all 33 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2 | |
| 2023 | 3 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 4 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
Show 10 earlier declaration years
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1989 | 1 | |
| 1984 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 33 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 33 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4810 | SEVERE STORM, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-08-20 |
| 3609 | TROPICAL DEPRESSION DEBBY | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-08-08 |
| 4720 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2023-07-14 |
| 3595 | FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2023-07-10 |
| 4695 | SEVERE STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-03-20 |
| 3567 | TROPICAL STORM HENRI | EM | Hurricane | 2021-08-22 |
| 4532 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-08 |
| 3437 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4474 | SEVERE STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2020-01-17 |
| 4445 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-06-14 |
| 4356 | SEVERE STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2018-01-02 |
| 4330 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2017-08-16 |
| 4207 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-02-03 |
| 4178 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2014-06-11 |
| 4140 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2013-08-02 |
| 4043 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-11-08 |
| 4022 | TROPICAL STORM IRENE | DR | Hurricane | 2011-09-01 |
| 3338 | HURRICANE IRENE | EM | Hurricane | 2011-08-29 |
| 4001 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-07-08 |
| 1995 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-06-15 |
Show 13 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1790 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-09-12 |
| 1715 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-08-03 |
| 1307 | TROPICAL STORM FLOYD | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-11-10 |
| 1228 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-06-30 |
| 1184 | EXCESSIVE RAINFALL, HIGH WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1997-07-25 |
| 1101 | ICE JAMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1996-02-13 |
| 1063 | EXCESSIVE RAINFALL, FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-08-16 |
| 938 | HEAVY RAINS, ICE JAMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1992-03-18 |
| 875 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1990-07-25 |
| 840 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1989-09-11 |
| 712 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1984-06-18 |
| 518 | SEVERE STORMS, HIGH WINDS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1976-08-05 |
| 397 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, & LANDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 1973-07-06 |
Storm Events in Vermont
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Washington County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Weather | 882 | 7 | 0 | $2.8M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 694 | 3 | 4 | $7.1M |
| Winter Storm | 646 | 1 | 0 | $5.0M |
| Strong Wind | 352 | 0 | 0 | $5.7M |
| Flash Flood | 170 | 5 | 1 | $190.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
1,234
Total Paid
$49.8M
Avg Per Claim
$40.4K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 52.2/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$22.2M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Hurricane Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Avalanche Very Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Hail Very Low
Drought 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 Washington County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Landslide carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), while the county's declaration history is led by Severe Storm. 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: Nelson County, ND
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 33 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Washington County: 28 of 33 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Washington County: NRI composite 52.2 (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 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: 52.2 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 33. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Washington County's NFIP claims file (1,234 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 Washington County?
The most common disaster type in Washington County is Severe Storm, with 14 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (13), Hurricane (3), Biological (2).
How does Washington County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Vermont average?
FEMA lists 33 declaration records for Washington County. That is 15% above the Vermont county mean of 28.8. Its count is also 59% above 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 28 major disaster declarations, representing 85% of all 33 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Washington County filed?
Washington County has 1,234 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $49.8M in payments, with an average of $40.4K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Washington County?
No. In Washington County, Landslide has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $17.6M. 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 2011, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Washington County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Washington County, Vermont has an overall risk score of 52.2 out of 100 (Relatively Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $22.2M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Washington County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Washington County is Landslide (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate) and Lightning (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts landslide here at an average of 1.5 times per year. 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 Washington County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Vermont profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events