Saguache County, Colorado: hazard history

FEMA declared 9 disasters that named Saguache County between 1970 and 2020.

Most recent declarations

• DR-4498 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3436 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-4229 2015 · Flood · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides
• EM-3224 2005 · Coastal Storm · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation
• EM-3185 2003 · Snowstorm · Snow
• DR-1421 2002 · Fire · Wildfires
• DR-719 1984 · Flood · Severe Storms, Mudslides, Landslides & Flooding
• EM-3025 1977 · Drought · Drought
• DR-293 1970 · Flood · Heavy Rains & Flooding

Not counted above: 12 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Colorado. A declaration is a decision to send federal help, not a measure of how bad an event was. Records run from 1953. Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries.

Records start in 1996. Damage is NOAA's estimate at the time, in nominal dollars, and is often rounded; it is not insurance claims data. A storm that crossed two NOAA zones in this county is recorded, and counted, once per zone. A storm filed against a forecast zone is counted in every county that zone covers, with the whole storm's damage; do not add these figures across counties.

NOAA storm event records in Saguache County each year. The busiest year was 1996, with 116 records.

Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.

Costliest records

1. Flood · Apr 30, 1999$8.6M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5694856
2. Blizzard · Apr 11, 2001$4.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5239264
3. Flood · Apr 30, 1999$2.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5694853
4. Blizzard · Oct 24, 1997$200K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5621984
5. Blizzard · Oct 24, 1997$200K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 1 death · NOAA record 5621985

Deadliest records

1. Avalanche · Feb 15, 20142 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 3 injuries · NOAA record 502960
2. Blizzard · Oct 24, 19971 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $200K damage · NOAA record 5621985
3. Heavy Snow · Dec 24, 19971 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5626631
4. Lightning · Jul 27, 20031 death
   NOAA name: Saguache County · 1 injury · NOAA record 5376481
5. Avalanche · Mar 20, 20041 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 1 injury · NOAA record 5388760

Each line is one NOAA record, linked to its page at NOAA. One large storm can appear more than once if NOAA recorded it in several zones of this county. Dollars are nominal.

The National Flood Insurance Program paid $5K on 1 claims in Saguache County from 1981 to 1981.

A count of claims, not a rate: NFIP publishes no count of insured homes beside it, and most flood damage is uninsured. Nominal dollars. Records run from 1978 to 2024; claims filed without a county code are not on any county page. Source: FEMA OpenFEMA FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims.

A hazard vulnerability analysis rates each hazard for probability, impact, preparedness and response. Probability is the one column the county’s federal record can fill — NCEI storm events from 1996 to 2026 and FEMA declarations naming the county — and this is what it says for a facility here, on the 0–3 scale of the all-hazards structure surveyors expect. The other six columns are the facility’s own judgment about its building, and Calchis leaves them blank.

A dash means the record does not speak to that hazard; it is not a zero. Whether a finished document satisfies the CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule is the facility’s finding and its surveyor’s. Complete the HVA for a facility in Saguache County — the technological, human and hazardous-materials rows, the six facility columns, the approval and the printed document — or read the sample analysis on that page first.

• Every figure is counted from public federal records held by Calchis: NOAA NCEI Storm Events, FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations, and FEMA NFIP claims. Nothing is modeled or estimated.
• NOAA files some events against a county and others against an NWS forecast zone, and publishes a code for both. Records are counted as Saguache County by that code — county records by the county's own FIPS code, zone records through the National Weather Service's published list of which counties each zone covers. No name matching is involved. Of 1,153 records, 52 were filed against this county and 1,101 against a forecast zone covering it. A zone storm is counted in every county its zone covers, and its damage figure is the whole storm's, not this county's share — NOAA does not publish that split. So these figures describe this county; they must not be added up across counties. Left out: 0% of Colorado's NOAA records, which are marine zones or zones NWS does not map to a county.
• Counts last rebuilt from the source records on Sep 15, 2026.