Gage County, Nebraska: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Gage County, Nebraska has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 40.6 out of 100, higher than about 40% of US counties, with hail, strong winds and wildfires scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $15 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 22 federal disaster declarations that included Gage County since 1967, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4928-NE (Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Tornadoes, and Flooding, declared 3 August 2026). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 55 tornadoes touching Gage County from 1950 to 2025.
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Population 21,684 Buildings worth $6.2 billion Area 869 sq mi Risk rank in Nebraska 22 of 93 FIPS 31067
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | 88.9 | $1.9 million | about 8 a year | 303 |
| Strong wind | Relatively Moderate | 79.2 | $1.5 million | about 4.6 a year | 175 |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | 78.9 | $437,836 | about once every 775 years | — |
| Ice storm | Relatively Moderate | 78.5 | $431,713 | about 1.1 a year | 71 |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | 78.4 | $4.4 million | about once every 1.2 years | 43 |
| Winter weather | Relatively Moderate | 77.8 | $220,647 | about 12 a year | 235 |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | 72.7 | $650,160 | about 47 a year | 106,883 strikes |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 63.5 | $424,165 | about 15 a year | 455 |
| Heat wave | Relatively Low | 48.6 | $418,195 | about 8 a year | 123 |
| Landslide | Very Low | 33.7 | $491 | about once every 7.8 years | — |
| Inland flooding | Very Low | 32.4 | $4.5 million | about 1.1 a year | 30 |
| Earthquake | Very Low | 19.1 | $31,410 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Cold wave | Very Low | 16.4 | $202,716 | about 3.3 a year | 63 |
| Hurricane | No Rating | 0.0 | — | — | 0 |
| Avalanche | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Coastal flooding | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Tsunami | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Volcanic activity | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
Score: FEMA's percentile among US counties that face the hazard (higher = more risk). Expected loss: FEMA's modelled average yearly loss to buildings, people (as a statistical value) and crops. How often: FEMA's annualised frequency of the hazard in the county; for some hazards it counts event-days, so it is a rough guide, not a forecast. "Not Applicable" means FEMA does not model that hazard here.
Federal disaster declarations 22
Most common: Severe Storm 13, Flood 5, Severe Ice Storm 2, Hurricane 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1960s | 1 | Flood |
| 1970s | 2 | Severe Ice Storm, Flood |
| 1980s | 1 | Tornado |
| 1990s | 3 | Severe Storm ×2, Flood |
| 2000s | 8 | Severe Storm ×6, Severe Ice Storm, Hurricane |
| 2010s | 5 | Severe Storm ×3, Flood ×2 |
| 2020s | 2 | Severe Storm ×2 |
The last 10
Widest declarations that included Gage County
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuees (2005, EM-3245-NE): 93 Nebraska counties designated.
- Severe Winter Storm, Straight-Line Winds, and Flooding (2019, DR-4420-NE): 84 Nebraska counties designated.
- Severe Storms, Tornadoes, and Flooding (2008, DR-1770-NE): 62 Nebraska counties designated.
Named storms in its declarations: Hurricane Katrina (2005).
Not counted above: 2 COVID-19 ("Biological") declarations — in 2020 every US county was included. Nebraska also had 6 statewide declarations with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 55
| Tornadoes touching the county | 55 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F4 ×1 |
| Peak month | May (24) |
| Deadliest | 22 May 2004, F4, 54 mi path, 1 killed, 38 injured |
| Longest path | 7 Jun 1967, F2, 67.3 mi path |
| Most recent | 6 May 2024, EF0, 1 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 1 / 60 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 23 | 13 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 8 | 4 | 11 | 2 | 10 | 11 | 5 | 4 |
Deaths and injuries are for each tornado's whole path, which can run beyond this county. F-scale ratings before February 2007, Enhanced Fujita (EF) after.
How Gage County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gage County (this page) | — | Very Low | 40.6 | Hail |
| Johnson County | 39 km | Very Low | 4.6 | Wildfire |
| Jefferson County | 40 km | Very Low | 24.1 | Hail |
| Pawnee County | 41 km | Very Low | 3.8 | Wildfire |
| Saline County | 48 km | Very Low | 42.4 | Hail |
| Marshall County, KS | 55 km | Very Low | 21.4 | Wildfire |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Nebraska, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Very Low 18.8 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Relatively High 66.4 |
| Community risk factor | 0.88 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $15 million |
FEMA scales expected losses up where social vulnerability is high (people who may find it harder to prepare, evacuate or recover) and down where community resilience is high. A factor above 1 raises the risk score. For social vulnerability a high rating is worse; for resilience a high rating is better.
Prepare for Gage County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Nebraska · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Hail: Weather alerts for Nebraska
- Strong wind: Power outages now
- Wildfire: US wildfires now · Wildfire smoke: what protects you
- Your property's flood zone: FEMA Flood Map Service Center ↗ — this page cannot tell you that.
- Official preparedness guidance: Ready.gov ↗ and your county emergency management office.
What this page shows, and what it misses
FEMA's National Risk Index rates a whole county against every other US county; it is a planning-level estimate for nationwide comparison, not a flood-zone map and not a substitute for a local risk assessment or the risk to one home. Declarations are presidential disaster, emergency and fire management declarations that named this county; state declarations and SBA or USDA designations are not included. Tornadoes are counted when the county is one of up to four listed on the track; 670 tornadoes that crossed a state line carry no county list in NOAA's file and are left out.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Risk Index Dataset: National Risk Index Counties - v1.20.0 (December 2025). Retrieved from https://services.arcgis.com/XG15cJAlne2vxtgt/ArcGIS/rest/services/National_Risk_Index_Counties/FeatureServer/0/query on November 2, 2026, 1:20 PM EST. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Risk Index dataset API or downloadable datasets but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), OpenFEMA Dataset: Disaster Declarations Summaries - v2, retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/api/open/v2/DisasterDeclarationsSummaries on November 2, 2026, 1:21 PM EST. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).
Tornado records: NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center, Severe Weather Database, tornadoes 1950–2025 (https://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/data/1950-2025_actual_tornadoes.csv, downloaded 2 November 2026). Public domain; not endorsed by NOAA. Compiled by Global Incident Tracker.
Questions about Gage County
What natural disasters is Gage County, Nebraska most at risk from?
Gage County, Nebraska has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 40.6 out of 100, higher than about 40% of US counties, with hail, strong winds and wildfires scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $15 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Gage County had?
OpenFEMA lists 22 federal disaster declarations that included Gage County since 1967, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4928-NE (Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Tornadoes, and Flooding, declared 3 August 2026). Another 6 Nebraska declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Gage County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 55 tornadoes touching Gage County from 1950 to 2025. The deadliest: 22 May 2004, F4, 54 mi path, 1 killed, 38 injured (deaths and injuries are for the whole path).
Is the National Risk Index a flood zone map?
No. The National Risk Index is a planning-level estimate for a whole county, built for nationwide comparison. It does not tell you the flood zone or the risk of a single property: for that, look up the address on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center (msc.fema.gov) and ask your local floodplain manager.