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Editorial

Most disaster-prone counties in California

California has 1,650 county-level FEMA disaster declarations across 58 counties. The dominant hazard type is fire. Los Angeles County leads with 88 declarations, followed by Riverside County and San Bernardino County.

This ranking shows every county in California ordered by how many times FEMA has issued a disaster declaration affecting it. Counties near coastlines, river systems, or wildfire corridors tend to appear at the top because the same geographic exposure produces recurring events across decades.

Each county links to a full disaster history page with the complete declaration timeline, hazard type breakdown, decade trends, and whatever FEMA spending data is available. For a national view, see the most disaster-prone counties in America page.

California ranking

All counties by FEMA declaration count

#CountyDeclarationsTop hazardFirst yearLatest year
1Los Angeles County88Fire19692025
2Riverside County65Fire19652024
3San Bernardino County61Fire19652024
4Ventura County52Fire19652024
5San Diego County51Fire19652024
6Santa Barbara County43Fire19692024
7Orange County41Fire19692023
8Shasta County41Fire19642023
9Kern County40Fire19672024
10Butte County39Fire19642024
11Napa County39Fire19642023
12Sonoma County36Fire19642023
13Lake County35Fire19642024
14Santa Cruz County34Severe Storm19772024
15Mendocino County33Flood19642023
16Monterey County33Severe Storm19672024
17Trinity County32Severe Storm19642023
18Solano County30Flood19642023
19San Luis Obispo County28Flood19672024
20Yuba County28Fire19642023
21El Dorado County27Flood19642023
22Humboldt County27Flood19642023
23Marin County26Severe Storm19642023
24Placer County26Fire19642023
25Madera County25Fire19692023
26San Joaquin County25Flood19642023
27Santa Clara County25Severe Storm19772023
28Tehama County25Flood19642024
29Alameda County24Severe Storm19702023
30Mariposa County24Fire19692024
31San Mateo County24Severe Storm19772023
32Calaveras County23Severe Storm19772025
33Nevada County23Fire19642023
34Plumas County23Flood19642023
35Sacramento County23Flood19642023
36Siskiyou County23Fire19642023
37Tulare County23Flood19672023
38Yolo County22Severe Storm19642023
39Amador County21Severe Storm19642023
40Contra Costa County21Flood19692023
41Del Norte County21Flood19642023
42Glenn County21Flood19642024
43Tuolumne County21Flood19642023
44Fresno County20Flood19692023
45Stanislaus County20Flood19642023
46Sutter County20Severe Storm19642024
47Colusa County19Severe Storm19642023
48Kings County19Flood19692023
49Lassen County19Fire19642021
50Merced County19Severe Storm19692023
51San Benito County18Flood19692023
52Modoc County17Flood19642023
53Inyo County16Flood19672023
54Sierra County16Flood19642023
55Alpine County15Flood19642023
56Imperial County15Flood19762023
57Mono County14Flood19692023
58San Francisco County11Severe Storm19892023