FEMA Records
17
Below median
Indiana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
White County, IN
17 FEMA disaster declarations (1974-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 17
- FEMA declarations
- 11
- Major disasters
- 39
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
White County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 17 declarations, more than 32% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 1% below the Indiana county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 39%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 39%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 17
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 235
- 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 18181 · White County 17 declarations · rank 2140/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 17
- MAJOR-MID 65%
- RANK-LOWER #2,140
- PHOTO-FINISH Curry
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -1%
Nearest declaration peer: Curry, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Indiana state profile
White County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among White 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
- White · this county 17
White · this county
17 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows White County carries 17 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2140 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
White County versus quieter counties in this dataset
White County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · White 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
White County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for White County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $6.6M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Cold Wave 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 White County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 235 paid claims, totaling $5.0M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $21.2K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Indiana county averages 17.1 federal declaration records, while White County has 17. The gap is 1% 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 38.5/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $12.5M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively Low) and community resilience (Very High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Cold Wave carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 4.1 times per year here, based on 77 historical events on record.
60 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
White County, IN · 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 Moderate
12/25
17 declarations (1.0x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share High
16/25
11 of 17 declarations are major disasters (65%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in White County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - White 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
65%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
39
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike White 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 | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.1 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 3.4 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 616 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.9 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 5.1 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 12 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 9.3 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 39 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 45 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 0.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 84,636 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 7
Snowstorm 3
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Flood 1
Hurricane 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
Tornado 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on White County's record, 41% 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 - 11 64.7%
of all 17 declarations
Emergency - 6 35.3%
of all 17 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3641 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4704 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-04-15 |
| 4515 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-03 |
| 3456 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4363 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2018-05-04 |
| 4173 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2014-04-22 |
| 1832 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-04-22 |
| 1740 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-01-30 |
| 3274 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2007-03-12 |
| 3238 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1573 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2005-01-21 |
| 1520 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-06-03 |
| 1476 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-07-11 |
| 3162 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2001-01-24 |
| 3135 | IN-WINTER STORM 12/23/98 | EM | Snowstorm | 1999-01-15 |
| 899 | SEVERE ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 1991-03-29 |
| 423 | TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1974-04-04 |
Storm Events in Indiana
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to White County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 4,886 | 16 | 73 | $57.6M |
| Hail | 1,643 | 0 | 0 | $1.7M |
| Winter Weather | 1,166 | 32 | 80 | $2.5M |
| Flood | 850 | 13 | 3 | $16.0M |
| Flash Flood | 648 | 14 | 5 | $97.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
235
Total Paid
$5.0M
Avg Per Claim
$21.2K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 38.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$12.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Low
Earthquake Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Drought Very Low
Wildfire 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: 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 White County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave 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
White County's closest FEMA peer: Snyder County, PA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for White County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
White County shows 17 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
White County: 11 of 17 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
White County: NRI composite 38.5 (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 White County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for White 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: 38.5 (Very Low).
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
White County's NFIP claims file (235 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 White County?
The most common disaster type in White County is Severe Storm, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Snowstorm (3), Biological (2), Winter Storm (1).
How does White County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Indiana average?
The typical Indiana county has 17.1 FEMA declaration records; White County has 17, or 1% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 18% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has White County received?
White County has received 11 major disaster declarations, representing 65% of all 17 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has White County filed?
White County has 235 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $5.0M in payments, with an average of $21.2K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in White County?
No. In White County, Cold Wave has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $6.6M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in White County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in White County was 2005, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1974 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for White County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, White County, Indiana has an overall risk score of 38.5 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Low; on community resilience, Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $12.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to White County?
FEMA's NRI data points to White County is Cold Wave (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively Low) and Earthquake (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 4.1 times per year, drawn from 77 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 White County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Indiana profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events