FEMA Records
15
Below median
Iowa · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Wayne County, IA
15 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2020), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 15
- FEMA declarations
- 13
- Major disasters
- 22
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Wayne County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 15 declarations, more than 23% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 22% below the Iowa county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 22%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 22%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 15
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 6
- severe storm 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 19185 · Wayne County 15 declarations · rank 2456/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 15
- MAJOR-HEAVY 87%
- RANK-LOWER #2,456
- PHOTO-FINISH Polk
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -22%
Nearest declaration peer: Polk, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Iowa state profile
Wayne County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Wayne County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Flathead · near 15
Flathead · near
15 declarations
- Murray · near 15
Murray · near
15 declarations
- Polk · near 15
Polk · near
15 declarations
- Wayne · this county 15
Wayne · this county
15 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Wayne County carries 15 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2456 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Wayne County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Wayne County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Wayne County
15 23rd percentile higher than 23% 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
Wayne County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Wayne County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 22.0/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $5.9M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Relatively High social-vulnerability score and Relatively Moderate community-resilience score. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Drought stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 14 modeled event-days per year here, based on 539 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.
Start with the state benchmark: a Iowa county averages 19.3 federal declaration records, while Wayne County has 15. The gap is 22% 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.
56 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Wayne County, IA · 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
11/30
15 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25
15 declarations (0.8x state county average of 19)
Major Disaster Share Very High
22/25
13 of 15 declarations are major disasters (87%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Wayne County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Wayne 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
87%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
22
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Wayne 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drought | Relatively High | 14 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 7.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 5 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 4.5 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 843 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 4.7 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,092 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | an average of 2.7 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 11 times per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 46 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 165 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 6
Flood 5
Biological 2
Severe Ice Storm 1
Hurricane 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Wayne County's record, 40% 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 - 13 86.7%
of all 15 declarations
Emergency - 2 13.3%
of all 15 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 2 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 15 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 15 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4483 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-23 |
| 3480 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4421 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-03-23 |
| 4234 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-07-31 |
| 4181 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2014-07-14 |
| 4119 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2013-05-31 |
| 1930 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-07-29 |
| 1763 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-05-27 |
| 1737 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2008-01-04 |
| 1727 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-09-14 |
| 3239 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1518 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-05-25 |
| 996 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-09 |
| 965 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1992-10-02 |
| 386 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-05-23 |
Storm Events in Iowa
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Wayne County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,928 | 6 | 227 | $40.5M |
| Hail | 3,736 | 0 | 0 | $4.3M |
| Heavy Rain | 2,394 | 0 | 0 | $292.0K |
| Drought | 1,556 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Winter Storm | 1,543 | 3 | 4 | $2.8M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 22.0/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$5.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively High
Landslide Very Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Hurricane 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: Drought
Drought is the slowest of the modeled hazards and the least visible: it does its damage to agriculture, water supply and soil over seasons rather than hours, so it rarely produces the kind of single-day damage that drives a disaster declaration. FEMA scores it in event-days per year rather than discrete events for exactly that reason.
Worth noting for Wayne County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively High), 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
Wayne County's closest FEMA peer: Merrick County, NE
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Wayne County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Wayne County shows 15 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Wayne County: 13 of 15 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Wayne County: NRI composite 22.0 (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 Wayne County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Wayne 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: 22.0 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 15. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 15 FEMA declarations, Wayne 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 Wayne County?
The most common disaster type in Wayne County is Severe Storm, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (5), Biological (2), Severe Ice Storm (1).
How does Wayne County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Iowa average?
The typical Iowa county has 19.3 FEMA declaration records; Wayne County has 15, or 22% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 28% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Wayne County received?
Wayne County has received 13 major disaster declarations, representing 87% of all 15 disaster declarations.
What was the worst year for disasters in Wayne County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Wayne County was 1993, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2020.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Wayne County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Wayne County, Iowa has an overall risk score of 22.0 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively High; on community resilience, Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $5.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Wayne County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Wayne County as of the latest release is Drought (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Landslide (Very Low) and Tornado (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 14 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 539 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 Wayne County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Iowa profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events