FEMA Records
28
High volume
California · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Yuba County, CA
28 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2023), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 28
- FEMA declarations
- 18
- Major disasters
- 81
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Yuba County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 28 declarations, more than 81% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 2% below the California county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 19%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 19%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 28
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 320
- 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 06115 · Yuba County 28 declarations · rank 601/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 28
- MAJOR-MID 64%
- RANK-MID #601
- PHOTO-FINISH Loíza
- NRI-LOW 81
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-BELOW -2%
Nearest declaration peer: Loíza, PR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · California state profile
Yuba County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Yuba County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Hertford · near 28
Hertford · near
28 declarations
- Loíza · near 28
Loíza · near
28 declarations
- Maunabo · near 28
Maunabo · near
28 declarations
- Yuba · this county 28
Yuba · this county
28 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Yuba County carries 28 FEMA declaration records, ranked 601 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Yuba County ranks in the national declaration registry
Yuba County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Yuba County
28 Top 19% higher than 81% 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
Yuba County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Yuba County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $24.9M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Drought 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 Yuba County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 320 paid claims, totaling $8.3M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $26.0K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a California county averages 28.5 federal declaration records, while Yuba County has 28. The gap is 2% 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 80.9/100 (Relatively Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $46.3M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Low and community resilience Relatively Low, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Drought stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 65 modeled event-days per year here, based on 2,016 historical events on record.
68 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Yuba County, CA · 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
20/30
28 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.4x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
28 declarations (1.0x state county average of 29)
Major Disaster Share High
16/25
18 of 28 declarations are major disasters (64%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
9 different disaster types declared in Yuba County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Yuba 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
81
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Yuba 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 High | 65 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 189 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 31 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5.6 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Volcanic Activity | Very Low | roughly once every 909 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 7.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 11 times per year |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 30 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 13 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 5 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 47 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 8
Flood 7
Severe Storm 6
Biological 2
Dam/Levee Break 1
Hurricane 1
Freezing 1
Coastal Storm 1
Drought 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Yuba County's record, 29% of its declarations. Wildfire is the one hazard here with its own dedicated federal instrument: the Fire Management Assistance Grant, which appears in this data as an FM record. An FMAG can be authorised while a fire is still burning, on a timescale of hours, because its purpose is to reimburse the cost of fighting a fire that threatens to become a major disaster.
That distinction matters when comparing counties. An FM declaration is not a presidential major disaster declaration and does not carry the same assistance programmes, so a fire-heavy county's total is not directly comparable with a hurricane-heavy county's total unless the declaration types are separated, which is why they are listed separately on this page.
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 - 18 64.3%
of all 28 declarations
Emergency - 7 25.0%
of all 28 declarations
Fire Management - 3 10.7%
of all 28 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 4 | |
| 2018 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 3 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 2 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1988 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
Show 5 earlier declaration years
| 1983 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1970 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 28 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 28 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3592 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | EM | Flood | 2023-03-10 |
| 3591 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | EM | Flood | 2023-01-09 |
| 4569 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2020-10-16 |
| 5363 | BEAR FIRE | FM | Fire | 2020-09-09 |
| 4558 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2020-08-22 |
| 4482 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-22 |
| 3428 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4344 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2017-10-10 |
| 5216 | CASCADE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2017-10-09 |
| 4308 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2017-04-01 |
| 3381 | POTENTIAL FAILURE OF THE EMERGENCY SPILLWAY AT OROVILLE LAKE | EM | Dam/Levee Break | 2017-02-14 |
| 4301 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2017-02-14 |
| 2825 | YUBA FIRE | FM | Fire | 2009-08-15 |
| 1628 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, MUDSLIDES, AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-02-03 |
| 3248 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-13 |
| 3140 | CA-WILDFIRES-08/25/1999 | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
| 1203 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-02-09 |
| 1155 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, MUD AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-04 |
| 1046 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING LANDSLIDES, MUD FLOW | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-03-12 |
| 1044 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, MUD FLOWS | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-01-10 |
Show 8 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 894 | SEVERE FREEZE | DR | Freezing | 1991-02-11 |
| 815 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 1988-09-29 |
| 758 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-02-21 |
| 677 | COASTAL STORMS, FLOODS, SLIDES & TORNADOES | DR | Coastal Storm | 1983-02-09 |
| 3023 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-01-20 |
| 283 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1970-02-16 |
| 253 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-01-26 |
| 183 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1964-12-24 |
Storm Events in California
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Yuba County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 4,070 | 13 | 27 | $228.2M |
| Flood | 3,132 | 26 | 25 | $985.1M |
| Heavy Snow | 1,814 | 6 | 0 | $1.6M |
| Dense Fog | 1,605 | 52 | 148 | $2.8M |
| Drought | 1,421 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
320
Total Paid
$8.3M
Avg Per Claim
$26.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 80.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$46.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Volcanic Activity Very Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Avalanche Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Hail Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Cold Wave No Rating
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 Yuba County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively High), while the county's declaration history is led by Fire. 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
Yuba County's closest FEMA peer: Cherokee County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Yuba County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Yuba County shows 28 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Yuba County: 18 of 28 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Yuba County: NRI composite 80.9 (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 Yuba County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Yuba 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: 80.9 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 28. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Yuba County's NFIP claims file (320 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 Yuba County?
The most common disaster type in Yuba County is Fire, with 8 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (7), Severe Storm (6), Biological (2).
How does Yuba County's FEMA declaration record compare with the California average?
The typical California county has 28.5 FEMA declaration records; Yuba County has 28, or 2% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 35% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Yuba County received?
Yuba County has received 18 major disaster declarations, representing 64% of all 28 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Yuba County filed?
Yuba County has 320 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $8.3M in payments, with an average of $26.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Yuba County?
No. In Yuba County, Drought has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $24.9M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Yuba County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Yuba County was 2020, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2023.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Yuba County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Yuba County, California has an overall risk score of 80.9 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Low; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $46.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Yuba County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Yuba County is Drought (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Relatively Moderate) and Earthquake (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 65 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 2,016 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 Yuba County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · California profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events