FEMA Records
20
Above median
Rhode Island · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Bristol County, RI
20 FEMA disaster declarations (1978-2022), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 20
- FEMA declarations
- 11
- Major disasters
- 19
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Bristol County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 20 declarations, more than 46% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 13% below the Rhode Island county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 19%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 19%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 20
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 830
- 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 44001 · Bristol County 20 declarations · rank 1712/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 20
- MAJOR-MID 55%
- RANK-LOWER #1,712
- PHOTO-FINISH Monona
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-BELOW -13%
Nearest declaration peer: Monona, IA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Rhode Island state profile
Bristol County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Bristol County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Bristol · this county 20
Bristol · this county
20 declarations
- Cleveland · near 20
Cleveland · near
20 declarations
- Monona · near 20
Monona · near
20 declarations
- Tallapoosa · near 20
Tallapoosa · near
20 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Bristol County carries 20 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1712 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Bristol County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Bristol County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Bristol County
20 46th percentile higher than 46% 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
Bristol County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Bristol County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $5.6M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very Low), while Hurricane 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 Bristol County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 830 claims and $4.9M 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 $5.9K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
Start with the state benchmark: a Rhode Island county averages 23.0 federal declaration records, while Bristol County has 20. The gap is 13% 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's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 19.4/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $9.4M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Very Low social-vulnerability score and Very High community-resilience score. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Hurricane, 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 5 years here, based on 30 historical events on record.
49 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Bristol County, RI · 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
14/30
20 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
20 declarations (0.9x state county average of 23)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
11 of 20 declarations are major disasters (55%)
Hazard Diversity High
10/20
4 different disaster types declared in Bristol County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Bristol 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
55%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
19
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Bristol 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 Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Coastal Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.8 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 21 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 787 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 3.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 9.9 times per year |
| Drought | Very Low | 2.9 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 154 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 236 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 86,223 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 1.1 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 8
Snowstorm 6
Severe Storm 4
Biological 2
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Bristol County's federal record, 40% 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 - 11 55.0%
of all 20 declarations
Emergency - 9 45.0%
of all 20 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 3 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2010 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 2 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 20 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 20 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4653 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2022-05-12 |
| 3563 | HURRICANE HENRI | EM | Hurricane | 2021-08-21 |
| 4505 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-30 |
| 3440 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4212 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-04-03 |
| 4107 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2013-03-22 |
| 4089 | HURRICANE SANDY | DR | Hurricane | 2012-11-03 |
| 3355 | HURRICANE SANDY | EM | Hurricane | 2012-10-29 |
| 4027 | TROPICAL STORM IRENE | DR | Hurricane | 2011-09-03 |
| 3334 | HURRICANE IRENE | EM | Hurricane | 2011-08-27 |
| 3311 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | EM | Severe Storm | 2010-03-30 |
| 1894 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-03-29 |
| 3255 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-19 |
| 3203 | RECORD SNOW | EM | Snowstorm | 2005-02-17 |
| 1091 | BLIZZARD OF 96 (SEVERE SNOW STORM) | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-24 |
| 3102 | BLIZZARDS, HIGH WINDS & RECORD SNOWFALL | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-16 |
| 913 | HURRICANE BOB | DR | Hurricane | 1991-08-26 |
| 748 | HURRICANE GLORIA | DR | Hurricane | 1985-10-15 |
| 548 | SNOW & ICE | DR | Snowstorm | 1978-02-16 |
| 3058 | BLIZZARD & SNOWSTORMS | EM | Snowstorm | 1978-02-07 |
Storm Events in Rhode Island
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Bristol County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 175 | 0 | 2 | $987.6K |
| Strong Wind | 144 | 1 | 2 | $489.8K |
| High Wind | 124 | 1 | 1 | $427.6K |
| Heavy Snow | 99 | 0 | 1 | $105.0K |
| Flood | 72 | 0 | 0 | $74.3K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
830
Total Paid
$4.9M
Avg Per Claim
$5.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 19.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$9.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hurricane Relatively Low
Coastal Flooding Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Drought Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Wildfire 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: 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 Bristol County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hurricane is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Low), 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
Bristol County's closest FEMA peer: Kaufman County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Bristol County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Bristol County shows 20 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Bristol County: 11 of 20 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Bristol County: NRI composite 19.4 (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 Bristol County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Bristol 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: 19.4 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 20. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Bristol County's NFIP claims file (830 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 Bristol County?
The most common disaster type in Bristol County is Hurricane, with 8 declarations. Other disaster types include Snowstorm (6), Severe Storm (4), Biological (2).
How does Bristol County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Rhode Island average?
The typical Rhode Island county has 23.0 FEMA declaration records; Bristol County has 20, or 13% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 3% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Bristol County received?
Bristol County has received 11 major disaster declarations, representing 55% of all 20 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Bristol County filed?
Bristol County has 830 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $4.9M in payments, with an average of $5.9K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Bristol County?
No. In Bristol County, Hurricane has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $5.6M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Bristol County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Bristol County was 2013, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1978 to 2022.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Bristol County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Bristol County, Rhode Island has an overall risk score of 19.4 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very Low and community resilience is Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $9.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Bristol County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Bristol County is Hurricane (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Coastal Flooding (Relatively Moderate) and Lightning (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hurricane here at roughly once every 5 years, drawn from 30 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 Bristol County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Rhode Island profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events