FEMA Records
17
Below median
Michigan · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Wayne County, MI
17 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively High. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 17
- FEMA declarations
- 12
- Major disasters
- 99
- NRI risk · Relatively High
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Wayne County. Its 17 FEMA declarations are 70% above the Michigan county mean and exceed the count for 32% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 1%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 1%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively High
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 17
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 2,891
- 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 26163 · Wayne County 17 declarations · rank 2161/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-HIGH · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-HIGH
- DECL-MID 17
- MAJOR-MID 71%
- RANK-LOWER #2,161
- PHOTO-FINISH Curry
- NRI-HIGH 99
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-HIGH +70%
Nearest declaration peer: Curry, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Michigan 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
- Curry · near 17
Curry · near
17 declarations
- Murray · near 17
Murray · near
17 declarations
- Washington · near 17
Washington · near
17 declarations
- Wayne · this county 17
Wayne · this county
17 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Wayne County carries 17 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2161 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
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
Wayne County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Wayne County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $237.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Cold Wave carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Very High). 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 Wayne County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 2,891 claims and $13.6M 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 $4.7K. 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. Wayne County's 17 federal records stand 70% above the Michigan county mean of 10.0. 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 sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 99.0/100 (Relatively High). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively High (roughly $401.5M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively High and community resilience Relatively Moderate, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Cold Wave stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 2.7 times per year here, based on 51 historical events on record.
66 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Wayne County, MI · 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 Very High
21/25
17 declarations (1.7x state county average of 10)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
12 of 17 declarations are major disasters (71%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 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
71%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
99
Relatively High
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Wave | Very High | an average of 2.7 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Very High | an average of 5.1 times per year |
| Tornado | Very High | roughly once every 4 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very High | an average of 3.1 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively High | 4.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Very High | an average of 1.9 times per year |
| Lightning | Very High | an average of 37 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 10 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1,050 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 10 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 91 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 51,584 years |
| Coastal Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 69 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 2.8 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 6
Flood 5
Biological 2
Snowstorm 2
Hurricane 1
Other 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Wayne County's record, 35% 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 - 12 70.6%
of all 17 declarations
Emergency - 5 29.4%
of all 17 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1980 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 2 | |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4757 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2024-02-08 |
| 4607 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2021-07-15 |
| 4494 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-27 |
| 3455 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4195 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2014-09-25 |
| 3225 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-07 |
| 1527 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-06-30 |
| 3189 | POWER OUTAGE | EM | Other | 2003-09-23 |
| 1346 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-10-17 |
| 3137 | MI - SEVERE WEATHER 1/2 /99 | EM | Snowstorm | 1999-01-27 |
| 1237 | SEVERE STORMS AND HIGH WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-05 |
| 1181 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES,AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-07-11 |
| 631 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1980-09-08 |
| 3057 | BLIZZARDS & SNOWSTORMS | EM | Snowstorm | 1978-01-27 |
| 495 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, ICING & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1976-03-19 |
| 371 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-04-12 |
| 363 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-12-01 |
Storm Events in Michigan
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Wayne County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 3,010 | 10 | 18 | $173.8M |
| Winter Storm | 1,486 | 3 | 11 | $41.8M |
| Winter Weather | 1,254 | 21 | 38 | $892.0K |
| Hail | 962 | 0 | 0 | $77.1M |
| High Wind | 389 | 3 | 2 | $668.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
2,891
Total Paid
$13.6M
Avg Per Claim
$4.7K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively High
Score: 99.0/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively High
$401.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Very High
Strong Wind Very High
Tornado Very High
Riverine Flooding Very High
Heat Wave Relatively High
Ice Storm Very High
Lightning Very High
Winter Weather Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Moderate
Landslide Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Coastal Flooding Relatively Low
Hail Relatively 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: Cold Wave
Cold Wave measures exposure to extreme cold rather than to snow. Its harm is concentrated in health effects, burst infrastructure and energy demand spikes, and it falls hardest where the building stock and the grid were not built with sustained cold in mind.
Worth noting for Wayne County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave carries the highest modeled rating (Very 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: Collier County, FL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Wayne County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Wayne County: NRI composite 99.0 (Relatively High).
Similar Major-disaster share
Wayne County: 12 of 17 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Wayne County shows 17 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
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: 99.0 (Relatively High).
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
Wayne County's NFIP claims file (2,891 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 Wayne County?
The most common disaster type in Wayne County is Severe Storm, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (5), Biological (2), Snowstorm (2).
How does Wayne County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Michigan average?
FEMA lists 17 declaration records for Wayne County. That is 70% above the Michigan county mean of 10.0. Its count is also 18% 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 Wayne County received?
Wayne County has received 12 major disaster declarations, representing 71% of all 17 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Wayne County filed?
Wayne County has 2,891 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $13.6M in payments, with an average of $4.7K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Wayne County?
No. In Wayne County, Cold Wave has the highest National Risk Index rating (Very High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $237.3M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Wayne County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Wayne County was 1973, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Wayne County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Wayne County, Michigan has an overall risk score of 99.0 out of 100 (Relatively High). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively High and community resilience is Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively High, representing $401.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Wayne County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Wayne County is Cold Wave (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Strong Wind (Very High) and Tornado (Very High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 2.7 times per year, drawn from 51 historical events on record. FEMA derives these ratings from historical event frequency, the assets exposed, and the community's vulnerability profile.
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 Wayne County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Michigan profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events