FEMA Records
35
Very high volume
Louisiana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Bienville Parish, LA
35 FEMA disaster declarations (1977-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 35
- FEMA declarations
- 19
- Major disasters
- 29
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Bienville Parish has a nationally busy FEMA history: 35 declarations, more than 93% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 15% below the Louisiana county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 29%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 29%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 35
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 41
- 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.
How does Bienville Parish compare?
Bienville Parish vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
35 Top 7% higher than 93% 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 · 2026-08-03
Bienville Parish's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Louisiana county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Bienville Parish is led by Riverine Flooding (about $1.8M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Ice Storm carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Very 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 Bienville Parish's hazard record show?
Declaration frequency
Nationally, Bienville Parish's 35 FEMA records form a high-volume history; within Louisiana, however, the count is 15% below the county mean. 19 entries carry the Major Disaster classification. The largest incident group is Hurricane, appearing 16 times. The full 49-year record averages 0.7 declarations annually. A DR label alone does not say whether Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, or both followed.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 28.7/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $5.7M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Very High social-vulnerability score and Relatively Low community-resilience score. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Ice Storm stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 1.6 times per year here, based on 107 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 41 claims and $485.8K 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.
Start with the state benchmark: a Louisiana county averages 41.4 federal declaration records, while Bienville Parish has 35. The gap is 15% 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.
70 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Bienville Parish, LA · 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) Very High
25/30
35 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
35 declarations (0.8x state county average of 41)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
19 of 35 declarations are major disasters (54%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
9 different disaster types declared in Bienville Parish
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Louisiana Avg
-15%
State avg: 41.4
vs. National Avg
+69%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.7
Over 49 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Bienville Parish
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
54%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
29
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Bienville Parish?
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ice Storm | Very High | an average of 1.6 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 21 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5.4 times per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 16 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 67 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 32 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 760 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 4.5 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 2.8 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 4,468 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 16
Flood 4
Severe Ice Storm 3
Severe Storm 3
Winter Storm 2
Coastal Storm 2
Biological 2
Snowstorm 2
Tornado 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Bienville Parish's federal record, 46% 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).
Major Disaster - 19 54.3%
of all 35 declarations
Emergency - 16 45.7%
of all 35 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 8 | |
| 2020 | 6 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 3 | |
| 2005 | 4 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 2 | |
| 1989 | 2 | |
| 1984 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 35 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 35 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4900 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Winter Storm | 2026-02-18 |
| 3638 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 3614 | TROPICAL STORM FRANCINE | EM | Hurricane | 2024-09-10 |
| 3574 | TROPICAL STORM NICHOLAS | EM | Coastal Storm | 2021-09-13 |
| 4611 | HURRICANE IDA | DR | Hurricane | 2021-08-29 |
| 3568 | TROPICAL STORM IDA | EM | Hurricane | 2021-08-27 |
| 4590 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-03-09 |
| 3556 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-18 |
| 3549 | TROPICAL STORM ZETA | EM | Hurricane | 2020-10-27 |
| 4570 | HURRICANE DELTA | DR | Hurricane | 2020-10-16 |
| 3547 | HURRICANE DELTA | EM | Hurricane | 2020-10-07 |
| 3543 | HURRICANE SALLY | EM | Hurricane | 2020-09-14 |
| 4559 | HURRICANE LAURA | DR | Hurricane | 2020-08-28 |
| 3538 | TROPICAL STORMS LAURA AND MARCO | EM | Hurricane | 2020-08-23 |
| 3527 | TROPICAL STORM CRISTOBAL | EM | Coastal Storm | 2020-06-07 |
| 4484 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-24 |
| 3459 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4263 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2016-03-13 |
| 1792 | HURRICANE IKE | DR | Hurricane | 2008-09-13 |
| 1786 | HURRICANE GUSTAV | DR | Hurricane | 2008-09-02 |
Show 15 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3289 | HURRICANE GUSTAV | EM | Hurricane | 2008-08-29 |
| 1607 | HURRICANE RITA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-09-24 |
| 3260 | HURRICANE RITA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-21 |
| 1603 | HURRICANE KATRINA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-08-29 |
| 3212 | HURRICANE KATRINA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-08-27 |
| 1357 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2001-01-12 |
| 1314 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2000-02-15 |
| 1264 | SEVERE ICE STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-01-21 |
| 1012 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-02-28 |
| 904 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1991-05-03 |
| 902 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1991-04-23 |
| 835 | TROPICAL STORM ALLISON | DR | Flood | 1989-07-17 |
| 829 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1989-05-20 |
| 3090 | SEVERE STORMS & TORNADOES | EM | Tornado | 1984-05-15 |
| 3031 | DROUGHT & FREEZING | EM | Snowstorm | 1977-02-22 |
Storm Events in Louisiana
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Bienville Parish.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 3,274 | 12 | 29 | $24.9M |
| Flash Flood | 1,516 | 20 | 17 | $3.9B |
| Hail | 1,224 | 0 | 0 | $49.3M |
| Excessive Heat | 1,183 | 3 | 0 | $0 |
| Heat | 1,106 | 5 | 0 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
41
Total Paid
$485.8K
Avg Per Claim
$11.8K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 28.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$5.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Ice Storm Very High
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Hail Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Wildfire 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: Ice Storm
Ice storms load power lines and tree limbs with accumulating freezing rain until they fail. The characteristic cost is infrastructure and multi-day power loss across a wide area rather than structural damage to buildings, which is why their consequences often outlast the weather that caused them.
Worth noting for Bienville Parish: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Ice Storm carries the highest modeled rating (Very High), while the county's declaration history is led by Hurricane. 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
Bienville Parish's closest FEMA peer: Middlesex County, MA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Bienville Parish. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Bienville Parish shows 35 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Bienville Parish: 19 of 35 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Bienville Parish: NRI composite 28.7 (Very 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 Bienville Parish - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 35 FEMA declarations, Bienville Parish 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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Bienville Parish?
The most common disaster type in Bienville Parish is Hurricane, with 16 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (4), Severe Ice Storm (3), Severe Storm (3).
How does Bienville Parish's FEMA declaration record compare with the Louisiana average?
The typical Louisiana county has 41.4 FEMA declaration records; Bienville Parish has 35, or 15% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 69% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Bienville Parish received?
Bienville Parish has received 19 major disaster declarations, representing 54% of all 35 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Bienville Parish filed?
Bienville Parish has 41 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $485.8K in payments, with an average of $11.8K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Bienville Parish?
No. In Bienville Parish, Ice Storm has the highest National Risk Index rating (Very High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $1.8M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Bienville Parish?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Bienville Parish was 2021, with 8 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1977 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Bienville Parish?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Bienville Parish, Louisiana has an overall risk score of 28.7 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very High; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $5.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Bienville Parish?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Bienville Parish as of the latest release is Ice Storm (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Heat Wave (Relatively Low) and Strong Wind (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts ice storm here at an average of 1.6 times per year, drawn from 107 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.
What this means for Bienville Parish
Against a Louisiana county mean of 41 declarations, Bienville Parish, LA records 35, or 15% fewer. PlainHazard classifies that historical total as high activity.
- Major Disaster is the largest group (19 of 35) in a declaration history that remains below its state benchmark; frequency here is not a forecast. Louisiana overview
- Nationally the county exceeds 93% of recorded county totals, but its own Louisiana benchmark is higher. The ranking keeps those two contexts separate. Most-disaster rankings
- A short NFIP claims file cannot establish low flood exposure; the data guide explains the limits of each federal measure. Disaster-data guide
A below-average federal record is not a safety guarantee. Use National Weather Service alerts and local emergency-management notices for present conditions, not this historical comparison.
PlainHazard derives this profile from FEMA's Disaster Declarations Summaries and National Risk Index data. The declaration comparison covers 3,266 U.S. counties and county equivalents in this database, refreshed as of 2026-08-03. Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
All federal data sources used on this page
- FEMA OpenFEMA, Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 - all federally-declared disasters for this county. fema.gov/openfema/disaster-declarations
- FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) - per-county per-hazard risk ratings and expected annual loss. hazards.fema.gov/nri
- NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database - state-level storm/severe-weather event records, 2015-2025. ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainHazard Editorial
Verify with FEMA → · Verify with FEMA NRI → · Verify with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.