Benton County, Iowa: hazard history

FEMA declared 18 disasters that named Benton County between 1965 and 2020.

Most recent declarations

• DR-4557 2020 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms
• DR-4483 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3480 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-4289 2016 · Flood · Severe Storms And Flooding
• DR-4135 2013 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• DR-4126 2013 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• DR-4016 2011 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding
• DR-1763 2008 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• DR-1688 2007 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storms
• EM-3239 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation

Not counted above: 9 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Iowa. 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 Benton County each year. The busiest year was 2008, with 85 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Flood · Jun 1, 2008$10.0M
   NOAA name: Benton County · NOAA record 117261
2. Ice Storm · Feb 24, 2007$2.1M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 15938
3. Hail · May 10, 2003$1.0M
   NOAA name: Benton County · NOAA record 5359329
4. Thunderstorm Wind · Jul 11, 2011$1.0M
   NOAA name: Benton County · NOAA record 329685
5. Thunderstorm Wind · Jul 11, 2011$1.0M
   NOAA name: Benton County · NOAA record 338451

Deadliest records

1. Winter Weather · Jan 20, 20081 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 75243
2. Thunderstorm Wind · Dec 15, 20211 death
   NOAA name: Benton County · NOAA record 993812

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 $2.0M on 108 claims in Benton County from 1982 to 2024.

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 Benton 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 Benton 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 881 records, 648 were filed against this county and 233 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.
• Counts last rebuilt from the source records on Sep 15, 2026.