FEMA Records
14
Low volume
Nebraska · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Wheeler County, NE
14 FEMA disaster declarations (2005-2022), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 14
- FEMA declarations
- 12
- Major disasters
- 5
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Wheeler County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 14 declarations, more than 20% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 17% below the Nebraska county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 5%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 5%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 14
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 2
- 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 31183 · Wheeler County 14 declarations · rank 2608/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 14
- MAJOR-HEAVY 86%
- RANK-LOWER #2,608
- PHOTO-FINISH Pulaski
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -17%
Nearest declaration peer: Pulaski, IL (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Nebraska state profile
Wheeler County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Wheeler County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Franklin (city) · near 14
Franklin (city) · near
14 declarations
- Harris · near 14
Harris · near
14 declarations
- Pulaski · near 14
Pulaski · near
14 declarations
- Wheeler · this county 14
Wheeler · this county
14 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Wheeler County carries 14 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2608 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Wheeler County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Wheeler County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Wheeler County
14 20th percentile higher than 20% 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
Wheeler County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Wheeler 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 5.5/100 (Very Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $3.2M in annualized losses). Two modifiers shape how that exposure becomes real-world harm here: social vulnerability (Relatively Low) and community resilience (Very Low). 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 5.9 times per year here, based on 223 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 2 claims and $7.8K 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 Nebraska county averages 16.8 federal declaration records, while Wheeler County has 14. The gap is 17% 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.
54 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Wheeler County, NE · 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
10/30
14 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25
14 declarations (0.8x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share Very High
21/25
12 of 14 declarations are major disasters (86%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Wheeler County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Wheeler 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
86%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
5
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Wheeler 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 5.9 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 32 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,003 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 2.2 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 15 times per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | an average of 6.3 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 4.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 41 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,745 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 8
Biological 2
Flood 2
Snowstorm 1
Hurricane 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Wheeler County's record, 57% 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 85.7%
of all 14 declarations
Emergency - 2 14.3%
of all 14 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 3 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 3 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 14 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 14 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4662 | SEVERE STORMS AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-07-27 |
| 4521 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-04 |
| 3483 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4420 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-03-21 |
| 4375 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Snowstorm | 2018-06-29 |
| 1924 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-07-15 |
| 1902 | SEVERE STORMS, ICE JAMS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2010-04-21 |
| 1878 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-02-25 |
| 1770 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-06-20 |
| 1714 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-07-24 |
| 1706 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-06-06 |
| 1674 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-01-07 |
| 1627 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-01-26 |
| 3245 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUEES | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
Storm Events in Nebraska
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Wheeler County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 6,079 | 0 | 2 | $237.7M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,757 | 3 | 19 | $228.1M |
| Drought | 1,658 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| High Wind | 1,647 | 1 | 1 | $22.1M |
| Winter Storm | 1,155 | 0 | 2 | $335.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
2
Total Paid
$7.8K
Avg Per Claim
$3.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 5.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$3.2M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hail Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Earthquake 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.
For Wheeler County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hail is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Moderate), and Severe Storm declarations also lead its federal record. Where the model and the declaration history agree, the reading is comparatively straightforward, the hazard is both expected and repeatedly realised.
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
Wheeler County's closest FEMA peer: Swains Island, AS
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Wheeler County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Wheeler County shows 14 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Wheeler County: 12 of 14 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Wheeler County: NRI composite 5.5 (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 Wheeler County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Wheeler 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: 5.5 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 14. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 14 FEMA declarations, Wheeler 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 Wheeler County?
The most common disaster type in Wheeler County is Severe Storm, with 8 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Flood (2), Snowstorm (1).
How does Wheeler County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Nebraska average?
The typical Nebraska county has 16.8 FEMA declaration records; Wheeler County has 14, or 17% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 32% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Wheeler County received?
Wheeler County has received 12 major disaster declarations, representing 86% of all 14 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Wheeler County filed?
Wheeler County has 2 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $7.8K in payments, with an average of $3.9K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Wheeler County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Wheeler County was 2007, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 2005 to 2022.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Wheeler County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Wheeler County, Nebraska has an overall risk score of 5.5 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Low, while community resilience comes in at Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $3.2M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Wheeler County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Wheeler County as of the latest release is Hail (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Low) and Wildfire (Very Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hail here at an average of 5.9 times per year, drawn from 223 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.
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 Wheeler County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Nebraska profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events