FEMA Records
17
Below median
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Bandera County, TX
17 FEMA disaster declarations (1978-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 17
- FEMA declarations
- 9
- Major disasters
- 67
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Bandera County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 17 declarations, more than 32% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 19% below the Texas county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 33%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 33%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 17
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 216
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records; an EM authorizes a narrower set of federal assistance than a DR.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 48019 · Bandera County 17 declarations · rank 2119/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 17
- MAJOR-MID 53%
- RANK-LOWER #2,119
- PHOTO-FINISH Curry
- NRI-LOW 67
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -19%
Nearest declaration peer: Curry, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Texas state profile
Bandera County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Bandera County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Bandera · this county 17
Bandera · this county
17 declarations
- Curry · near 17
Curry · near
17 declarations
- Murray · near 17
Murray · near
17 declarations
- Washington · near 17
Washington · near
17 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Bandera County carries 17 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2119 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Bandera County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Bandera County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Bandera County
17 32nd percentile higher than 32% of 3,266 counties
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more counties. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 · 2026-08-25
Bandera County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Bandera County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $12.5M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Wildfire carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low). EAL and risk score use different inputs; they need not agree.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025 release) - Expected Annual Loss vs composite risk rating by hazard.
What does Bandera County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 216 paid claims, totaling $5.7M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $26.3K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Texas county averages 20.9 federal declaration records, while Bandera County has 17. The gap is 19% below that mean. Fewer entries indicate a quieter history of recorded federal actions, not immunity from a hazard and not a prediction about what happens next.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 66.7/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $17.0M in annualized losses), and a Very High social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively Low community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Wildfire, only reaches Relatively Low on FEMA's scale, none of the 18 modeled hazards stand out here. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 591 years here.
53 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Bandera County, TX · PlainHazard-derived composite from federal records
This 0–100 index is an explicit PlainHazard composite from FEMA declaration history only on the county surface (this DB has no county-level NOAA damage row) . It is not FEMA's National Risk Index, not a forecast, and not a safety, insurance, or preparedness rating. Open the calculator · Methodology
FEMA Declarations (1953–present) Moderate
12/30
17 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25
17 declarations (0.8x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share High
13/25
9 of 17 declarations are major disasters (53%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Bandera County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Bandera County
How to read this radar
Each axis: NRI risk rating (Very Low-Very High) on a 0-100 scale. Rounder = broad exposure; spiky = one or two hazards dominate.
Major Disaster share
53%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
67
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Bandera County?
FEMA's National Risk Index models a historical event count and an annualized frequency for each hazard type. Most hazards are expressed as modeled occurrences per year; FEMA expresses drought and heat-wave frequency as event-days per year. These modeled frequencies are not forecasts.
| Hazard | NRI Risk Rating | Recurrence |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 591 years |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 44 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.9 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.4 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.4 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 148 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 5 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 43 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 4 modeled event-days per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 20 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 6,623 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 5
Fire 3
Hurricane 3
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Severe Storm 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Bandera County's record, 29% of its declarations. Federal flood declarations cover two mechanisms that behave very differently: riverine flooding, which builds over days as a watershed drains and is usually forecast well in advance, and flash flooding, which can arrive in under an hour from rainfall that fell somewhere upstream.
Flood is also the one hazard class where a second federal dataset exists for the same events. The National Flood Insurance Program records what was actually paid on insured losses, so it measures a narrower thing than the declaration count: uninsured damage, and flooding outside mapped special flood hazard areas, never enters it. Reading the two together is more informative than either alone.
Declaration counts describe past federal action. They are a record of what was declared, not a forecast of future hazard probability.
Declaration Types
What DR / EM / FM mean
FEMA categorizes declarations as Major Disasters (DR), Emergencies (EM), or Fire Management Assistance (FM).
Major Disaster - 9 52.9%
of all 17 declarations
Emergency - 8 47.1%
of all 17 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 17 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 17 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3649 | FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2026-07-18 |
| 4586 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-19 |
| 3554 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-14 |
| 4485 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3458 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4272 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2016-06-11 |
| 3284 | WILDFIRES | EM | Fire | 2008-03-14 |
| 1624 | EXTREME WILDFIRE THREAT | DR | Fire | 2006-01-11 |
| 1606 | HURRICANE RITA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-09-24 |
| 3261 | HURRICANE RITA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-21 |
| 3216 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-02 |
| 1425 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2002-07-04 |
| 3142 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARDS | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
| 1239 | TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-26 |
| 1179 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1997-07-07 |
| 3113 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Drought | 1993-09-10 |
| 561 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1978-08-03 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Bandera County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 14,072 | 0 | 15 | $7.4B |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 10,293 | 41 | 141 | $369.9M |
| Drought | 7,032 | 0 | 0 | $86.0K |
| Flash Flood | 4,728 | 338 | 24 | $47.6B |
| Heat | 4,079 | 119 | 405 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
216
Total Paid
$5.7M
Avg Per Claim
$26.3K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 66.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$17.0M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively High
Hail Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Very Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) Ratings reflect relative scores among all US counties. Data: hazards.fema.gov/nri
The model's sharpest exposure here: Wildfire
Wildfire risk in the model reflects fuel, terrain, weather and how much development sits in the wildland-urban interface. It is one of the few hazards where the exposure is materially changed by land management and building choices, not only by where the county happens to be.
Worth noting for Bandera County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Wildfire carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Low), while the county's declaration history is led by Flood. That is not a contradiction, the two measure genuinely different things. Declarations record federal ACTION, which requires damage costly enough to exceed state and local capacity; the Risk Index models EXPECTED annual loss across all 18 hazards whether or not any declaration ever followed. A hazard can be the county's largest modeled exposure and never once have driven a declaration.
National Risk Index ratings are modeled estimates of expected annual loss, not predictions of what will happen in any given year.
Data-matched county comparisons
Bandera County's closest FEMA peer: Jefferson County, OH
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Bandera County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Bandera County: NRI composite 66.7 (Relatively Low).
Similar Major-disaster share
Bandera County: 9 of 17 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Bandera County shows 17 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
How these peers are chosen
Cohort: Published U.S. county equivalents outside the source state or territory. Each metric keeps six ETL candidates; three unique destinations are shown after de-duplicating across axes. Declaration-volume ranking combines count and Major-disaster share and prefers a different leading incident type; Major-share ranks the Major fraction adjusted for volume; NRI ranks the modeled composite score only.
Retained FEMA snapshot feed for Bandera County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Bandera County: nearest out-of-state National Risk Index composite and nearest FEMA declaration count (floor ≥5 records). Record similarity only, not a forecast of the next hazard.
Similar NRI composite
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA NRI score. This county: 66.7 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 17. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Bandera County's NFIP claims file (216 claims) and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records - this guide separates them from modeled NRI risk.
More PlainHazard guides
- Most disaster-prone counties - U.S. counties ranked by FEMA declaration totals.
- Understanding disaster data - declarations vs storm events vs NRI scores.
- Preparing for natural disasters - household checklist (not county-specific advice).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Bandera County?
The most common disaster type in Bandera County is Flood, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Fire (3), Hurricane (3), Severe Ice Storm (2).
How does Bandera County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
The typical Texas county has 20.9 FEMA declaration records; Bandera County has 17, or 19% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 18% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Bandera County received?
Bandera County has received 9 major disaster declarations, representing 53% of all 17 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Bandera County filed?
Bandera County has 216 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $5.7M in payments, with an average of $26.3K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Bandera County?
No. In Bandera County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $12.5M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Bandera County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Bandera County was 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1978 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Bandera County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Bandera County, Texas has an overall risk score of 66.7 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very High; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $17.0M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Bandera County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Bandera County is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Lightning (Relatively High) and Hail (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 591 years. FEMA derives these ratings from historical event frequency, the assets exposed, and the community's vulnerability profile.
Data Sources & Methodology
Disaster declaration data comes from the FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 API, which includes all federally declared disasters, emergencies, and fire management assistance grants.
Storm event data is sourced from the NOAA Storm Events Database (2015-2025), which tracks significant weather events including thunderstorms, tornadoes, floods, and winter storms.
Flood insurance data comes from the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA claims dataset.
This data is provided for informational purposes only. FEMA disaster declarations represent federal response actions and may not capture all local emergencies or weather events.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Bandera County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events