FEMA Records
25
High volume
Oklahoma · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Woods County, OK
25 FEMA disaster declarations (1993-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 25
- FEMA declarations
- 16
- Major disasters
- 28
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Woods County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 25 declarations, more than 71% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 22% below the Oklahoma county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 28%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 28%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 25
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 11
- 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 40151 · Woods County 25 declarations · rank 933/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 25
- MAJOR-MID 64%
- RANK-LOWER #933
- PHOTO-FINISH Jefferson
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -22%
Nearest declaration peer: Jefferson, AR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Oklahoma state profile
Woods County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Woods County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Benton · near 25
Benton · near
25 declarations
- Jefferson · near 25
Jefferson · near
25 declarations
- Lafayette · near 25
Lafayette · near
25 declarations
- Woods · this county 25
Woods · this county
25 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Woods County carries 25 FEMA declaration records, ranked 933 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Woods County ranks in the national declaration registry
Woods County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Woods County
25 Top 29% higher than 71% 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
Woods County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Woods County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 28.1/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $11.7M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Very Low social-vulnerability score and Relatively High community-resilience score. 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 2.7 times per year here, based on 52 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 11 claims and $118.2K 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 Oklahoma county averages 32.2 federal declaration records, while Woods County has 25. The gap is 22% 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.
59 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Woods County, OK · 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) High
18/30
25 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.2x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25
25 declarations (0.8x state county average of 32)
Major Disaster Share High
16/25
16 of 25 declarations are major disasters (64%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Woods County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Woods 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
28
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Woods 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 2.7 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 77 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 154 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 8.4 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 9.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,041 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 9.7 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 4.1 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 48 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 13
Severe Ice Storm 6
Biological 2
Fire 2
Snowstorm 1
Hurricane 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Woods County's record, 52% 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 - 16 64.0%
of all 25 declarations
Emergency - 8 32.0%
of all 25 declarations
Fire Management - 1 4.0%
of all 25 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 2 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 3 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
Show 2 earlier declaration years
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 25 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 25 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4791 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-06-14 |
| 4587 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-24 |
| 3555 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-17 |
| 4530 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-05 |
| 3462 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4438 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2019-06-01 |
| 5177 | NW OKLAHOMA WILDFIRE OUTBREAK COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2017-03-07 |
| 4299 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2017-02-10 |
| 4256 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-02-10 |
| 4247 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2015-12-29 |
| 4109 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2013-04-08 |
| 3316 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Storm | 2011-02-02 |
| 3308 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Storm | 2010-01-30 |
| 3305 | RECORD SNOW AND NEAR RECORD SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2009-06-23 |
| 1803 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-10-09 |
| 1775 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-07-09 |
| 3280 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2007-12-10 |
| 1712 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-07-07 |
| 1678 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-02-01 |
| 3272 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2007-01-14 |
Show 5 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1623 | EXTREME WILDFIRE THREAT | DR | Fire | 2006-01-10 |
| 3219 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1401 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2002-02-01 |
| 1066 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-09-01 |
| 991 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1993-05-12 |
Storm Events in Oklahoma
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Woods County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 5,894 | 0 | 1 | $19.8M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 5,592 | 6 | 36 | $199.5M |
| Drought | 2,935 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Heat | 2,134 | 7 | 428 | $0 |
| Excessive Heat | 1,771 | 2 | 401 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
11
Total Paid
$118.2K
Avg Per Claim
$10.7K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 28.1/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$11.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Lightning 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 Woods 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
Woods County's closest FEMA peer: Lancaster County, VA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Woods County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Woods County shows 25 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Woods County: 16 of 25 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Woods County: NRI composite 28.1 (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 Woods County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Woods 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: 28.1 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 25. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 25 FEMA declarations, Woods 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 Woods County?
The most common disaster type in Woods County is Severe Storm, with 13 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Ice Storm (6), Biological (2), Fire (2).
How does Woods County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Oklahoma average?
The typical Oklahoma county has 32.2 FEMA declaration records; Woods County has 25, or 22% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 21% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Woods County received?
Woods County has received 16 major disaster declarations, representing 64% of all 25 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Woods County filed?
Woods County has 11 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $118.2K in payments, with an average of $10.7K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Woods County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Woods County was 2007, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1993 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Woods County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Woods County, Oklahoma has an overall risk score of 28.1 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very Low and community resilience is Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $11.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Woods County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Woods County is Cold Wave (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Moderate) and Wildfire (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 2.7 times per year, drawn from 52 historical events on record. These scores are based on FEMA's analysis of historical event frequency, 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 Woods County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Oklahoma profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events