FEMA Records
21
Above median
New York · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Yates County, NY
21 FEMA disaster declarations (1972-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 21
- FEMA declarations
- 15
- Major disasters
- 47
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Yates County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 21 declarations, more than 52% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 14% below the New York county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 47%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 47%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 21
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 149
- 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 36123 · Yates County 21 declarations · rank 1572/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 21
- MAJOR-MID 71%
- RANK-LOWER #1,572
- PHOTO-FINISH Montgomery
- NRI-LOW 47
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -14%
Nearest declaration peer: Montgomery, IN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · New York state profile
Yates County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Yates County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Atascosa · near 21
Atascosa · near
21 declarations
- Mason · near 21
Mason · near
21 declarations
- Montgomery · near 21
Montgomery · near
21 declarations
- Yates · this county 21
Yates · this county
21 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Yates County carries 21 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1572 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Yates County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Yates County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Yates County
21 Top 48% higher than 52% 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
Yates County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Yates County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $8.0M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Drought 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 Yates County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 149 paid claims, totaling $1.1M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $7.5K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a New York county averages 24.5 federal declaration records, while Yates County has 21. The gap is 14% 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 46.6/100 for this county (Relatively Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $10.0M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very High) and community resilience (Relatively High) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Drought carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 2.6 modeled event-days per year here, based on 70 historical events on record.
64 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Yates County, NY · 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
15/30
21 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
21 declarations (0.9x state county average of 25)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
15 of 21 declarations are major disasters (71%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
9 different disaster types declared in Yates County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Yates 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
71%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
47
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Yates 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 2.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 41 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 1.9 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 1.6 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 30 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 16 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 3.1 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,169 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | an average of 3.2 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 13 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 41,638 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 5
Severe Storm 4
Hurricane 3
Biological 2
Other 2
Snowstorm 2
Tropical Storm 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
Fire 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Yates County's record, 24% 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 71.4%
of all 21 declarations
Emergency - 6 28.6%
of all 21 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 3 | |
| 2001 | 2 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1984 | 1 | |
Show 2 earlier declaration years
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 21 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 21 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4825 | REMNANTS OF TROPICAL STORM DEBBY | DR | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-24 |
| 4625 | REMNANTS OF TROPICAL STORM FRED | DR | Hurricane | 2021-10-08 |
| 4480 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-20 |
| 3434 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4180 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2014-07-08 |
| 3351 | HURRICANE SANDY | EM | Hurricane | 2012-10-28 |
| 1993 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Flood | 2011-06-10 |
| 3262 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-30 |
| 1534 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-08-03 |
| 1486 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-08-29 |
| 3186 | POWER OUTAGE | EM | Other | 2003-08-23 |
| 1467 | ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2003-05-12 |
| 1391 | FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS | DR | Fire | 2001-09-11 |
| 3155 | WEST NILE VIRUS | EM | Other | 2000-10-11 |
| 1335 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-07-21 |
| 1095 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1996-01-24 |
| 3107 | SEVERE BLIZZARD | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-17 |
| 898 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Snowstorm | 1991-03-21 |
| 725 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1984-09-25 |
| 487 | STORMS, RAINS, LANDSLIDES & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-10-02 |
Show 1 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 338 | TROPICAL STORM AGNES | DR | Flood | 1972-06-23 |
Storm Events in New York
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Yates County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 8,295 | 6 | 45 | $45.0M |
| Winter Weather | 2,261 | 7 | 17 | $705.5K |
| Flash Flood | 1,775 | 23 | 3 | $674.3M |
| Strong Wind | 1,399 | 2 | 12 | $9.2M |
| Winter Storm | 1,228 | 13 | 2 | $4.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
149
Total Paid
$1.1M
Avg Per Claim
$7.5K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 46.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$10.0M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Hurricane Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Avalanche Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Winter Weather 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: Drought
Drought is the slowest of the modeled hazards and the least visible: it does its damage to agriculture, water supply and soil over seasons rather than hours, so it rarely produces the kind of single-day damage that drives a disaster declaration. FEMA scores it in event-days per year rather than discrete events for exactly that reason.
Worth noting for Yates County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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
Yates County's closest FEMA peer: Grundy County, MO
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Yates County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Yates County shows 21 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Yates County: 15 of 21 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Yates County: NRI composite 46.6 (Relatively 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 Yates County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Yates 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: 46.6 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 21. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Yates County's NFIP claims file (149 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 Yates County?
The most common disaster type in Yates County is Flood, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (4), Hurricane (3), Biological (2).
How does Yates County's FEMA declaration record compare with the New York average?
The typical New York county has 24.5 FEMA declaration records; Yates County has 21, or 14% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 1% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Yates County received?
Yates County has received 15 major disaster declarations, representing 71% of all 21 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Yates County filed?
Yates County has 149 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $1.1M in payments, with an average of $7.5K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Yates County?
No. In Yates County, Drought has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $8.0M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Yates County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Yates County was 2003, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1972 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Yates County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Yates County, New York has an overall risk score of 46.6 out of 100 (Relatively Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very High, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $10.0M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Yates County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Yates County is Drought (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Riverine Flooding (Relatively Low) and Hurricane (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 2.6 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 70 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 Yates County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · New York profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events