Wheeler County, Oregon: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Wheeler County, Oregon has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 7.2 out of 100, higher than about 7% of US counties, with wildfires, lightning and landslides scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $2.8 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 12 federal disaster declarations that included Wheeler County since 1964, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4854-OR (Wildfires, declared 1 January 2025). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 1 tornado touching Wheeler County from 1950 to 2025.
Live weather alerts for Oregon All official warnings Latest FEMA declarations
Population 1,446 Buildings worth $498 million Area 1,734 sq mi Risk rank in Oregon 34 of 36 FIPS 41069
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | 88.7 | $816,139 | about once every 99 years | — |
| Lightning | Relatively High | 87.6 | $760,588 | about 15 a year | 12,141 strikes |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | 69.5 | $4,161 | about 1.2 a year | — |
| Avalanche | Very Low | 65.4 | $1,967 | about once every 100 years | 0 |
| Volcanic activity | Very Low | 44.3 | $6 | about once every 400 years | 12 |
| Earthquake | Very Low | 17.9 | $17,058 | about once every 145 years | — |
| Drought | Very Low | 14.0 | $179 | about 59 a year | 1,491 |
| Inland flooding | Very Low | 12.3 | $1.1 million | about once every 2.2 years | 13 |
| Winter weather | Very Low | 11.3 | $6,592 | about 13 a year | 248 |
| Heat wave | Very Low | 6.7 | $7,034 | about 3.2 a year | 31 |
| Cold wave | Very Low | 6.0 | $21,691 | about once every 5.4 years | 3.5 |
| Hail | Very Low | 5.6 | $10,944 | about once every 3.6 years | 11 |
| Strong wind | Very Low | 3.2 | $12,630 | about once every 9.5 years | 5 |
| Ice storm | Very Low | 2.3 | $653 | about once every 67 years | 0 |
| Tornado | Very Low | 1.2 | $629 | about once every 42 years | 1 |
| Coastal flooding | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Hurricane | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Tsunami | 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 12
Most common: Severe Storm 4, Fire 3, Flood 3, Coastal Storm 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1960s | 1 | Flood |
| 1970s | 1 | Drought |
| 1990s | 2 | Severe Storm, Flood |
| 2000s | 4 | Severe Storm ×3, Coastal Storm |
| 2010s | 1 | Flood |
| 2020s | 3 | Fire ×3 |
The last 10
Widest declarations that included Wheeler County
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuation (2005, EM-3228-OR): 36 Oregon counties designated.
- Heavy Rains & Flooding (1964, DR-184-OR): 36 Oregon counties designated.
- Severe Winter Storms (2004, DR-1510-OR): 30 Oregon 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. Oregon also had 33 statewide declarations with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 1
| Tornadoes touching the county | 1 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F0 ×1 |
| Peak month | June (1) |
| Deadliest | — |
| Longest path | 8 Jun 2016, EF0, 0.2 mi path |
| Most recent | 8 Jun 2016, EF0, 0.2 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 0 / 0 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
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 Wheeler County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wheeler County (this page) | — | Very Low | 7.2 | Wildfire |
| Crook County | 70 km | Very Low | 33.6 | Wildfire |
| Gilliam County | 74 km | Very Low | 2.7 | Wildfire |
| Morrow County | 85 km | Very Low | 26.4 | Wildfire |
| Grant County | 85 km | Very Low | 32.1 | Wildfire |
| Jefferson County | 91 km | Very Low | 29.9 | Wildfire |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Oregon, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Relatively High 75.2 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Very Low 11.9 |
| Community risk factor | 1.43 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $2.8 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 Wheeler County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Oregon · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Wildfire: US wildfires now · Wildfire smoke: what protects you
- Lightning: Weather alerts for Oregon
- Landslide: Landslides recorded
- 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 Wheeler County
What natural disasters is Wheeler County, Oregon most at risk from?
Wheeler County, Oregon has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 7.2 out of 100, higher than about 7% of US counties, with wildfires, lightning and landslides scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $2.8 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Wheeler County had?
OpenFEMA lists 12 federal disaster declarations that included Wheeler County since 1964, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4854-OR (Wildfires, declared 1 January 2025). Another 33 Oregon declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Wheeler County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 1 tornado touching Wheeler County from 1950 to 2025.
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.