FEMA Records
18
Below median
Iowa · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Woodbury County, IA
18 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 18
- FEMA declarations
- 15
- Major disasters
- 83
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Woodbury County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 18 declarations, more than 37% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 7% below the Iowa county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 17%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 17%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 18
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 294
- 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 19193 · Woodbury County 18 declarations · rank 2027/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 18
- MAJOR-HEAVY 83%
- RANK-LOWER #2,027
- PHOTO-FINISH Monroe
- NRI-MID 83
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -7%
Nearest declaration peer: Monroe, TN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Iowa state profile
Woodbury County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Woodbury County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Brooke · near 18
Brooke · near
18 declarations
- Mecklenburg · near 18
Mecklenburg · near
18 declarations
- Monroe · near 18
Monroe · near
18 declarations
- Woodbury · this county 18
Woodbury · this county
18 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Woodbury County carries 18 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2027 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Woodbury County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Woodbury County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Woodbury County
18 37th percentile higher than 37% 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
Woodbury County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Woodbury County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $18.2M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Tornado carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively 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 Woodbury County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 294 paid claims, totaling $2.0M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $6.6K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Iowa county averages 19.3 federal declaration records, while Woodbury County has 18. The gap is 7% 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
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 83.3/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $50.7M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Low and community resilience Very High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Tornado stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 1 years here, based on 43 historical events on record.
64 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Woodbury 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
13/30
18 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
18 declarations (0.9x state county average of 19)
Major Disaster Share Very High
21/25
15 of 18 declarations are major disasters (83%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Woodbury County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Woodbury 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
83%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
83
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Woodbury 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tornado | Relatively High | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hail | Relatively High | an average of 6 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 35 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 318 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 6.5 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 15 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | roughly once every 1 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 4.2 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 6.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.2 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 42 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,934 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 7
Severe Storm 5
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Snowstorm 1
Hurricane 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Woodbury County's record, 39% of its declarations. Federal flood declarations cover two mechanisms that behave very differently: riverine flooding, which builds over days as a watershed drains and is usually forecast well in advance, and flash flooding, which can arrive in under an hour from rainfall that fell somewhere upstream.
Flood is also the one hazard class where a second federal dataset exists for the same events. The National Flood Insurance Program records what was actually paid on insured losses, so it measures a narrower thing than the declaration count: uninsured damage, and flooding outside mapped special flood hazard areas, never enters it. Reading the two together is more informative than either alone.
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 - 15 83.3%
of all 18 declarations
Emergency - 3 16.7%
of all 18 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
Show 2 earlier declaration years
| 1969 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 18 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 18 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4870 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Winter Storm | 2025-05-21 |
| 4796 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-06-24 |
| 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 |
| 4386 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2018-08-20 |
| 4184 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2014-07-24 |
| 1998 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2011-06-27 |
| 1877 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-02-25 |
| 3275 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2007-03-30 |
| 3239 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1282 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-07-22 |
| 1133 | SEVERE STORMS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-08-21 |
| 996 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1993-07-09 |
| 928 | ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 1991-12-26 |
| 868 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1990-05-26 |
| 259 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-04-25 |
| 193 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1965-04-22 |
Storm Events in Iowa
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Woodbury 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
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
294
Total Paid
$2.0M
Avg Per Claim
$6.6K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 83.3/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$50.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Tornado Relatively High
Hail Relatively High
Drought Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively High
Ice Storm Relatively High
Strong Wind Relatively High
Landslide Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively 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: Tornado
Tornado exposure is the most spatially concentrated in the model: total destruction along a narrow corridor with intact property either side. County-level averages therefore understate severity badly for anyone actually in the path, and overstate it for everyone else.
Worth noting for Woodbury County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Tornado carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively High), while the county's declaration history is led by Flood. 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
Woodbury County's closest FEMA peer: Macon County, IL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Woodbury County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Woodbury County: NRI composite 83.3 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar Major-disaster share
Woodbury County: 15 of 18 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Woodbury County shows 18 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
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 Woodbury County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Woodbury 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: 83.3 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 18. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Woodbury County's NFIP claims file (294 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 Woodbury County?
The most common disaster type in Woodbury County is Flood, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (5), Biological (2), Winter Storm (1).
How does Woodbury County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Iowa average?
The typical Iowa county has 19.3 FEMA declaration records; Woodbury County has 18, or 7% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 13% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Woodbury County received?
Woodbury County has received 15 major disaster declarations, representing 83% of all 18 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Woodbury County filed?
Woodbury County has 294 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $2.0M in payments, with an average of $6.6K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Woodbury County?
No. In Woodbury County, Tornado has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $18.2M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Woodbury County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Woodbury 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 Woodbury County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Woodbury County, Iowa has an overall risk score of 83.3 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Low and community resilience is Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $50.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Woodbury County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Woodbury County is Tornado (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively High) and Drought (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts tornado here at roughly once every 1 years, drawn from 43 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 Woodbury County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Iowa profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events