FEMA Records
27
High volume
South Carolina · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Barnwell County, SC
27 FEMA disaster declarations (1977-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 27
- FEMA declarations
- 12
- Major disasters
- 46
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Barnwell County. Its 27 FEMA declarations are 5% above the South Carolina county mean and exceed the count for 78% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 46%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 46%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 27
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 6
- 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 45011 · Barnwell County 27 declarations · rank 628/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 27
- MAJOR-LIGHT 44%
- RANK-MID #628
- PHOTO-FINISH Greene
- NRI-LOW 46
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-ABOVE +5%
Nearest declaration peer: Greene, MO (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · South Carolina state profile
Barnwell County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Barnwell County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Barnwell · this county 27
Barnwell · this county
27 declarations
- Coal · near 27
Coal · near
27 declarations
- Greene · near 27
Greene · near
27 declarations
- Warren · near 27
Warren · near
27 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Barnwell County carries 27 FEMA declaration records, ranked 628 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Barnwell County ranks in the national declaration registry
Barnwell County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Barnwell County
27 Top 22% higher than 78% 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
Barnwell County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Barnwell County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $2.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Hurricane carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). 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 Barnwell County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 45.8/100 for this county (Relatively Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $8.4M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very High) and community resilience (Very Low) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Hurricane carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 6 years here, based on 60 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 6 claims and $40.5K paid in total. PlainHazard calls 1-49 claims a light registry record, a label for this dataset rather than a finding that flood exposure is low. A short claims history can also reflect insurance take-up, the period covered, or losses that were never insured.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Barnwell County's 27 federal records stand 5% above the South Carolina county mean of 25.6. That comparison describes how often federal action was recorded, including any Major Disaster, Emergency, and Fire Management entries shown on this page; it does not convert the count into future probability.
62 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Barnwell County, SC · 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) High
20/30
27 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.3x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
13/25
27 declarations (1.1x state county average of 26)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
11/25
12 of 27 declarations are major disasters (44%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Barnwell County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Barnwell 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
44%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
46
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Barnwell 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 6 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 309 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 4.9 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,115 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 63 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 27 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 4.8 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 3.1 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 1.2 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 13
Severe Storm 4
Tropical Storm 3
Severe Ice Storm 3
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Drought 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Barnwell County's federal record, 48% of its declarations. Atlantic tropical systems run on a defined season, 1 June to 30 November, with most activity concentrated between August and October; Pacific and territorial basins run on their own calendars. A single named storm routinely produces one declaration number covering a long corridor of counties at once, well inland as well as on the coast, which is why an affected county's count can jump by several in one year without several separate events having occurred.
One practical distinction matters when reading these records: a tropical declaration usually bundles wind, storm surge and inland rainfall flooding under a single incident, but the insurance behind them is split. Wind damage falls to property insurers, while flood and surge damage is covered only under a separate National Flood Insurance Program policy. That is why a county can show heavy declaration activity and a comparatively small NFIP claims record, or the reverse.
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).
Emergency - 15 55.6%
of all 27 declarations
Major Disaster - 12 44.4%
of all 27 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 4 | |
| 2023 | 2 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 4 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 3 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 2 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 27 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 27 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3632 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-23 |
| 4835 | TROPICAL STORM DEBBY | DR | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-29 |
| 4829 | HURRICANE HELENE | DR | Hurricane | 2024-09-29 |
| 3619 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-26 |
| 3606 | HURRICANE DEBBY | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-08-05 |
| 3597 | HURRICANE IDALIA | EM | Hurricane | 2023-08-31 |
| 4677 | HURRICANE IAN | DR | Hurricane | 2022-11-21 |
| 3585 | HURRICANE IAN | EM | Hurricane | 2022-09-29 |
| 4542 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2020-05-01 |
| 4492 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-27 |
| 4479 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2020-03-17 |
| 3470 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 3421 | HURRICANE DORIAN | EM | Hurricane | 2019-09-01 |
| 3400 | HURRICANE FLORENCE | EM | Hurricane | 2018-09-10 |
| 4346 | HURRICANE IRMA | DR | Hurricane | 2017-10-16 |
| 3386 | HURRICANE IRMA | EM | Hurricane | 2017-09-07 |
| 4286 | HURRICANE MATTHEW | DR | Hurricane | 2016-10-11 |
| 3378 | HURRICANE MATTHEW | EM | Hurricane | 2016-10-06 |
| 3373 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | EM | Severe Storm | 2015-10-03 |
| 4166 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2014-03-12 |
Show 7 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3369 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2014-02-12 |
| 3233 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1509 | SEVERE ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2004-02-13 |
| 1313 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-01-31 |
| 1299 | HURRICANE FLOYD MAJOR DISASTER DECLARATIONS | DR | Hurricane | 1999-09-21 |
| 3145 | HURRICANE FLOYD EMERGENCY DECLARATIONS | EM | Hurricane | 1999-09-15 |
| 3047 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-08-04 |
Storm Events in South Carolina
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Barnwell County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 5,845 | 11 | 40 | $11.4M |
| Hail | 1,207 | 0 | 0 | $25.1M |
| Flash Flood | 954 | 20 | 35 | $150.4M |
| Strong Wind | 395 | 4 | 13 | $711.8K |
| Tornado | 320 | 9 | 110 | $127.1M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
6
Total Paid
$40.5K
Avg Per Claim
$6.8K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 45.8/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$8.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hurricane Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Winter Weather 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: Hurricane
Hurricane exposure in the model bundles the three ways a tropical system does harm, which arrive on different timescales and are insured differently: wind, storm surge on the coast, and rainfall flooding that can reach far inland well after landfall.
For Barnwell County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hurricane is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Moderate), and Hurricane declarations also lead its federal record. Where the model and the declaration history agree, the reading is comparatively straightforward, the hazard is both expected and repeatedly realised.
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
Barnwell County's closest FEMA peer: Comal County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Barnwell County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Barnwell County shows 27 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Barnwell County: 12 of 27 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Barnwell County: NRI composite 45.8 (Relatively Low).
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 Barnwell County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Barnwell 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: 45.8 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 27. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 27 FEMA declarations, Barnwell County sits in the high-volume declaration band - see how that count ranks against other U.S. counties.
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 Barnwell County?
The most common disaster type in Barnwell County is Hurricane, with 13 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (4), Tropical Storm (3), Severe Ice Storm (3).
How does Barnwell County's FEMA declaration record compare with the South Carolina average?
FEMA lists 27 declaration records for Barnwell County. That is 5% above the South Carolina county mean of 25.6. Its count is also 30% above the national county mean of 20.7. A larger declaration history records more federal actions; it is not a forecast of the county's next hazard.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Barnwell County received?
Barnwell County has received 12 major disaster declarations, representing 44% of all 27 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Barnwell County filed?
Barnwell County has 6 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $40.5K in payments, with an average of $6.8K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Barnwell County?
No. In Barnwell County, Hurricane has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $2.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Barnwell County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Barnwell County was 2020, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1977 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Barnwell County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Barnwell County, South Carolina has an overall risk score of 45.8 out of 100 (Relatively Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very High and community resilience is Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $8.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Barnwell County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Barnwell County is Hurricane (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Earthquake (Relatively Low) and Tornado (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hurricane here at roughly once every 6 years, drawn from 60 historical events on record. 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 Barnwell County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · South Carolina profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events