FEMA Records
21
Above median
Pennsylvania · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Bedford County, PA
21 FEMA disaster declarations (1972-2021), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 21
- FEMA declarations
- 15
- Major disasters
- 68
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Bedford County. Its 21 FEMA declarations are 13% above the Pennsylvania county mean and exceed the count for 52% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 32%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 32%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 21
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 1,185
- 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 42009 · Bedford County 21 declarations · rank 1467/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 21
- MAJOR-MID 71%
- RANK-LOWER #1,467
- PHOTO-FINISH Montgomery
- NRI-LOW 68
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +13%
Nearest declaration peer: Montgomery, IN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Pennsylvania state profile
Bedford County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Bedford County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Atascosa · near 21
Atascosa · near
21 declarations
- Bedford · this county 21
Bedford · this county
21 declarations
- Mason · near 21
Mason · near
21 declarations
- Montgomery · near 21
Montgomery · near
21 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Bedford County carries 21 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1467 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Bedford County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Bedford County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Bedford County
21 Top 48% higher than 52% 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
Bedford County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Bedford County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $21.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Landslide 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 Bedford County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 1,185 claims and $13.4M in payments. PlainHazard labels 500 or more claims a heavy registry record; that is a reporting bucket, not an official FEMA risk grade. The average paid claim was $11.3K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Bedford County's 21 federal records stand 13% above the Pennsylvania county mean of 18.6. 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 68.2/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $24.2M in annualized losses), and a Relatively Moderate social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively High community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Landslide carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 1.7 times per year here.
60 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Bedford County, PA · 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
15/30
21 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
14/25
21 declarations (1.1x state county average of 19)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
15 of 21 declarations are major disasters (71%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Bedford County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Bedford 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
71%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
68
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Bedford 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.7 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.6 times per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 25 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.4 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,621 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 37 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 14 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 2.2 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 1.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 5,078 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 0.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | an average of 1.8 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 7
Hurricane 5
Snowstorm 4
Severe Storm 3
Biological 2
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Bedford County's record, 33% 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 - 15 71.4%
of all 21 declarations
Emergency - 6 28.6%
of all 21 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 2 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 3 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1984 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 21 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 21 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4618 | REMNANTS OF HURRICANE IDA | DR | Hurricane | 2021-09-10 |
| 4506 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-30 |
| 3441 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4267 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2016-03-23 |
| 4099 | HURRICANE SANDY | DR | Hurricane | 2013-01-10 |
| 3356 | HURRICANE SANDY | EM | Hurricane | 2012-10-29 |
| 4030 | TROPICAL STORM LEE | DR | Flood | 2011-09-12 |
| 3340 | REMNANTS OF TROPICAL STORM LEE | EM | Flood | 2011-09-08 |
| 1898 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND SNOWSTORMS | DR | Snowstorm | 2010-04-16 |
| 3235 | HURRICANE KATRINA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1557 | TROPICAL DEPRESSION IVAN | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-19 |
| 1555 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING ASSOCIATED WITH TROPICAL DEPRESSION FRANCES | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-09-19 |
| 3180 | SNOW | EM | Severe Storm | 2003-03-14 |
| 1120 | FLOODING, SEVERE STORMS | DR | Flood | 1996-06-18 |
| 1093 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1996-01-21 |
| 1085 | BLIZZARD OF 96 | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-13 |
| 1015 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-03-10 |
| 3105 | SEVERE SNOWFALL & WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-16 |
| 721 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1984-08-27 |
| 537 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1977-07-21 |
Show 1 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 340 | TROPICAL STORM AGNES | DR | Flood | 1972-06-23 |
Storm Events in Pennsylvania
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Bedford County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 9,976 | 18 | 114 | $115.5M |
| Flash Flood | 2,288 | 23 | 8 | $463.2M |
| Winter Weather | 1,670 | 23 | 268 | $566.0K |
| Hail | 1,400 | 0 | 0 | $2.6M |
| Winter Storm | 881 | 14 | 17 | $2.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
1,185
Total Paid
$13.4M
Avg Per Claim
$11.3K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 68.2/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$24.2M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Relatively Low
Avalanche Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Hail Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Drought Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Cold Wave 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: Landslide
Landslide risk is a function of slope, soil and water, so it is usually a SECOND-ORDER hazard: it is triggered by the rainfall, snowmelt, wildfire burn scars or seismic shaking that came first. That is why a county can carry high landslide exposure whose realized damage is recorded under a flood or storm declaration instead.
Worth noting for Bedford County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Landslide carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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
Bedford County's closest FEMA peer: Lafayette County, AR
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Bedford County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Bedford County shows 21 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Bedford County: 15 of 21 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Bedford County: NRI composite 68.2 (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 Bedford County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Bedford 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: 68.2 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 21. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Bedford County's NFIP claims file (1,185 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 Bedford County?
The most common disaster type in Bedford County is Flood, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (5), Snowstorm (4), Severe Storm (3).
How does Bedford County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Pennsylvania average?
FEMA lists 21 declaration records for Bedford County. That is 13% above the Pennsylvania county mean of 18.6. Its count is also 1% 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 Bedford County received?
Bedford County has received 15 major disaster declarations, representing 71% of all 21 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Bedford County filed?
Bedford County has 1,185 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $13.4M in payments, with an average of $11.3K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Bedford County?
No. In Bedford County, Landslide has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $21.3M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Bedford County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Bedford County was 1996, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1972 to 2021.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Bedford County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Bedford County, Pennsylvania has an overall risk score of 68.2 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Moderate; on community resilience, Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $24.2M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Bedford County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Bedford County is Landslide (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Riverine Flooding (Relatively Moderate) and Hurricane (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts landslide here at an average of 1.7 times per year. These scores are based on FEMA's analysis of historical event frequency, exposed assets, and community vulnerability.
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 Bedford County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Pennsylvania profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events