FEMA Records
30
High volume
New Hampshire · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Belknap County, NH
30 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 30
- FEMA declarations
- 21
- Major disasters
- 57
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Belknap County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 30 declarations, more than 86% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 6% below the New Hampshire county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 43%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 43%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 30
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 108
- 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 33001 · Belknap County 30 declarations · rank 403/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 30
- MAJOR-MID 70%
- RANK-MID #403
- PHOTO-FINISH Jefferson
- NRI-LOW 57
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -6%
Nearest declaration peer: Jefferson, OK (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · New Hampshire state profile
Belknap County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Belknap County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Belknap · this county 30
Belknap · this county
30 declarations
- Clallam · near 30
Clallam · near
30 declarations
- Jefferson · near 30
Jefferson · near
30 declarations
- Latimer · near 30
Latimer · near
30 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Belknap County carries 30 FEMA declaration records, ranked 403 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Belknap County ranks in the national declaration registry
Belknap County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Belknap County
30 Top 14% higher than 86% 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
Belknap County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Belknap County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $16.2M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Lightning carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High). 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 Belknap County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 108 paid claims, totaling $924.2K. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $8.6K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a New Hampshire county averages 31.9 federal declaration records, while Belknap County has 30. The gap is 6% 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, 57.4/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $23.9M in annualized losses), and a Very Low social-vulnerability profile combined with Very High community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Lightning stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 20 times per year here, based on 42,710 historical events on record.
70 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Belknap County, NH · 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
22/30
30 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.4x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
30 declarations (0.9x state county average of 32)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
21 of 30 declarations are major disasters (70%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Belknap County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Belknap 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
70%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
57
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Belknap 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 20 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | an average of 1.8 times per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 11 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 20 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 1 time per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 613 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 2.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 1.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 1.9 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 19 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 62,249 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 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
Severe Storm 13
Hurricane 6
Flood 4
Snowstorm 3
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Belknap County's record, 43% of its declarations. In FEMA's vocabulary this covers convective weather: thunderstorm straight-line winds, large hail, and the multi-day outbreaks that often carry embedded tornadoes. Activity is heaviest in spring and summer, though the season varies by region.
These events behave differently from a hurricane on paper. Damage tends to be distributed along a storm track rather than concentrated on a coastline, and a declaration typically follows an outbreak that crossed several counties over a few days, not a single point of impact. Because the qualifying threshold is the cost of uninsured public and individual losses rather than storm intensity, two similar storms can produce a declaration in one year and none in another.
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 - 21 70.0%
of all 30 declarations
Emergency - 9 30.0%
of all 30 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2023 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 3 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2009 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
Show 5 earlier declaration years
| 1998 | 2 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 30 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 30 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4799 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Winter Storm | 2024-07-10 |
| 4740 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2023-09-14 |
| 4693 | SEVERE STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-03-15 |
| 4516 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-03 |
| 3445 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4355 | SEVERE STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2018-01-02 |
| 4316 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2017-06-01 |
| 4105 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2013-03-19 |
| 4095 | HURRICANE SANDY | DR | Hurricane | 2012-11-28 |
| 3360 | HURRICANE SANDY | EM | Hurricane | 2012-10-30 |
| 3344 | SEVERE STORM | EM | Severe Storm | 2011-11-01 |
| 4026 | TROPICAL STORM IRENE | DR | Hurricane | 2011-09-03 |
| 3333 | HURRICANE IRENE | EM | Hurricane | 2011-08-27 |
| 1812 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2009-01-02 |
| 3297 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Storm | 2008-12-13 |
| 1787 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-09-05 |
| 1782 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADO, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-08-11 |
| 1695 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-04-27 |
| 1643 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-05-25 |
| 1610 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2005-10-26 |
Show 10 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3258 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-19 |
| 3207 | RECORD AND/OR NEAR RECORD SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2005-03-30 |
| 3193 | SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2004-01-15 |
| 1305 | TROPICAL STORM FLOYD | DR | Hurricane | 1999-10-18 |
| 1231 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-07-02 |
| 1199 | SEVERE ICE STORM, RAINS AND HIGH WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-01-15 |
| 3101 | BLIZZARDS, HIGH WINDS & RECORD SNOWFALL | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-16 |
| 876 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1990-08-29 |
| 411 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1974-01-21 |
| 399 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-07-11 |
Storm Events in New Hampshire
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Belknap County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 921 | 3 | 48 | $1.9M |
| Heavy Snow | 344 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Winter Storm | 300 | 1 | 0 | $0 |
| Hail | 278 | 0 | 0 | $17.1K |
| Flash Flood | 256 | 0 | 1 | $26.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
108
Total Paid
$924.2K
Avg Per Claim
$8.6K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 57.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$23.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Lightning Relatively High
Ice Storm Relatively High
Hurricane Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Earthquake Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Avalanche Very Low
Hail 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: Lightning
Lightning is modeled as a high-frequency, low-per-event hazard: strike counts are large, but each strike affects a very small area. Its aggregate cost accumulates through structure fires, electrical and electronic damage, and it is one of the few hazards whose risk is essentially continuous through the season rather than episodic.
For Belknap County the two measures on this page point the same way: Lightning is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively High), and Severe Storm 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
Belknap County's closest FEMA peer: Leon County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Belknap County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Belknap County shows 30 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Belknap County: 21 of 30 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Belknap County: NRI composite 57.4 (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 Belknap County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Belknap 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: 57.4 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 30. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Belknap County's NFIP claims file (108 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 Belknap County?
The most common disaster type in Belknap County is Severe Storm, with 13 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (6), Flood (4), Snowstorm (3).
How does Belknap County's FEMA declaration record compare with the New Hampshire average?
The typical New Hampshire county has 31.9 FEMA declaration records; Belknap County has 30, or 6% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 45% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Belknap County received?
Belknap County has received 21 major disaster declarations, representing 70% of all 30 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Belknap County filed?
Belknap County has 108 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $924.2K in payments, with an average of $8.6K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Belknap County?
No. In Belknap County, Lightning has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $16.2M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Belknap County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Belknap County was 2013, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Belknap County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Belknap County, New Hampshire has an overall risk score of 57.4 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $23.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Belknap County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Belknap County is Lightning (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Ice Storm (Relatively High) and Hurricane (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts lightning here at an average of 20 times per year, drawn from 42,710 historical events on record. 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 Belknap County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · New Hampshire profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events