FEMA Records
14
Low volume
Oregon · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Wheeler County, OR
14 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 14
- FEMA declarations
- 9
- Major disasters
- 7
- 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 16% below the Oregon county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 7%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 7%
- 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
- 3
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Fire Management Assistance (FM) records, which are not presidential disaster declarations, alongside Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 41069 · Wheeler County 14 declarations · rank 2595/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 14
- MAJOR-MID 64%
- RANK-LOWER #2,595
- PHOTO-FINISH Pulaski
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -16%
Nearest declaration peer: Pulaski, IL (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Oregon 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 2595 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
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Wheeler County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $1.1M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Wildfire carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low). 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 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 7.2/100 (Very Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $2.8M in annualized losses). Two modifiers shape how that exposure becomes real-world harm here: social vulnerability (Relatively High) and community resilience (Very Low). Even the county's top-rated hazard, Wildfire, only reaches Relatively Low on FEMA's scale, none of the 18 modeled hazards stand out here. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 99 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 3 claims and $8.8K 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 Oregon county averages 16.6 federal declaration records, while Wheeler County has 14. The gap is 16% 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.
52 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Wheeler County, OR · 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
11/25
14 declarations (0.8x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share High
16/25
9 of 14 declarations are major disasters (64%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 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
64%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
7
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 99 years |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 15 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 400 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 145 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 59 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 13 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 3.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 9 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 42 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 4
Fire 3
Flood 3
Biological 2
Coastal Storm 1
Drought 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Wheeler County's record, 29% 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 - 9 64.3%
of all 14 declarations
Emergency - 3 21.4%
of all 14 declarations
Fire Management - 2 14.3%
of all 14 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4854 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2025-01-01 |
| 5534 | RAIL RIDGE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2024-09-07 |
| 5511 | LONE ROCK FIRE | FM | Fire | 2024-07-18 |
| 4499 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-28 |
| 3429 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4452 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2019-07-09 |
| 1683 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-02-22 |
| 1632 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-03-20 |
| 3228 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-07 |
| 1510 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-02-19 |
| 1160 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, LAND AND MUDSLIDES, FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-23 |
| 1099 | HIGH WINDS, SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1996-02-09 |
| 3039 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-04-29 |
| 184 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1964-12-24 |
Storm Events in Oregon
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Wheeler County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 859 | 13 | 10 | $3.2B |
| Heavy Snow | 654 | 2 | 0 | $139.2M |
| Frost/Freeze | 391 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Wildfire | 311 | 15 | 38 | $15.1M |
| Flood | 244 | 3 | 1 | $68.4M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
3
Total Paid
$8.8K
Avg Per Claim
$2.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 7.2/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$2.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively High
Landslide Relatively Low
Avalanche Very Low
Volcanic Activity Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Drought Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Hail Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Tornado 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: Wildfire
Wildfire risk in the model reflects fuel, terrain, weather and how much development sits in the wildland-urban interface. It is one of the few hazards where the exposure is materially changed by land management and building choices, not only by where the county happens to be.
Worth noting for Wheeler County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Wildfire carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Low), 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
Wheeler County's closest FEMA peer: Clarion County, PA
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: 9 of 14 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Wheeler County: NRI composite 7.2 (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: 7.2 (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 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Fire (3), Flood (3), Biological (2).
How does Wheeler County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Oregon average?
The typical Oregon county has 16.6 FEMA declaration records; Wheeler County has 14, or 16% 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 9 major disaster declarations, representing 64% of all 14 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Wheeler County filed?
Wheeler County has 3 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $8.8K in payments, with an average of $2.9K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Wheeler County?
No. In Wheeler County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $1.1M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Wheeler County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Wheeler County was 2020, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2025.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Wheeler County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Wheeler County, Oregon has an overall risk score of 7.2 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively High and community resilience is Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $2.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Wheeler County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Wheeler County is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Lightning (Relatively High) and Landslide (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 99 years. 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 Wheeler County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Oregon profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events