FEMA Records
25
High volume
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Brown County, TX
25 FEMA disaster declarations (1989-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 25
- FEMA declarations
- 15
- Major disasters
- 65
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Brown County. Its 25 FEMA declarations are 20% above the Texas county mean and exceed the count for 71% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 35%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 35%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 25
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 533
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Fire Management Assistance (FM) records, which are not presidential disaster declarations, alongside Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 48049 · Brown County 25 declarations · rank 860/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 25
- MAJOR-MID 60%
- RANK-LOWER #860
- PHOTO-FINISH Jefferson
- NRI-LOW 65
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-ABOVE +20%
Nearest declaration peer: Jefferson, AR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Texas state profile
Brown County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Brown County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Benton · near 25
Benton · near
25 declarations
- Brown · this county 25
Brown · this county
25 declarations
- Jefferson · near 25
Jefferson · near
25 declarations
- Lafayette · near 25
Lafayette · near
25 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Brown County carries 25 FEMA declaration records, ranked 860 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Brown County ranks in the national declaration registry
Brown County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Brown County
25 Top 29% higher than 71% 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
Brown County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Brown County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $11.7M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), while Hail 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 Brown County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 533 claims and $9.6M 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 $18.0K. 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. Brown County's 25 federal records stand 20% above the Texas county mean of 20.9. 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, 64.9/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $19.3M in annualized losses), and a Relatively High social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively High community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Hail carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 5.1 times per year here, based on 193 historical events on record.
66 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Brown County, TX · 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
18/30
25 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.2x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
15/25
25 declarations (1.2x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share High
15/25
15 of 25 declarations are major disasters (60%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Brown County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Brown 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
60%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
65
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Brown 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5.1 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 254 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.2 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.9 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 38 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 9 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 46 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,924 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 7
Flood 5
Severe Storm 5
Hurricane 3
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Drought 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Brown County's record, 28% of its declarations. Wildfire is the one hazard here with its own dedicated federal instrument: the Fire Management Assistance Grant, which appears in this data as an FM record. An FMAG can be authorised while a fire is still burning, on a timescale of hours, because its purpose is to reimburse the cost of fighting a fire that threatens to become a major disaster.
That distinction matters when comparing counties. An FM declaration is not a presidential major disaster declaration and does not carry the same assistance programmes, so a fire-heavy county's total is not directly comparable with a hurricane-heavy county's total unless the declaration types are separated, which is why they are listed separately on this page.
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 60.0%
of all 25 declarations
Emergency - 8 32.0%
of all 25 declarations
Fire Management - 2 8.0%
of all 25 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
Show 5 earlier declaration years
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1989 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 25 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 25 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4781 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2024-05-17 |
| 4586 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-19 |
| 3554 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-14 |
| 4485 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3458 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4416 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-02-25 |
| 5258 | 259 FIRE | FM | Fire | 2018-07-23 |
| 4272 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2016-06-11 |
| 4223 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-05-29 |
| 1999 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2011-07-01 |
| 2774 | CAMP BOWIE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2008-06-16 |
| 3284 | WILDFIRES | EM | Fire | 2008-03-14 |
| 1709 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-06-29 |
| 1624 | EXTREME WILDFIRE THREAT | DR | Fire | 2006-01-11 |
| 1606 | HURRICANE RITA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-09-24 |
| 3261 | HURRICANE RITA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-21 |
| 3216 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-02 |
| 1425 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2002-07-04 |
| 3142 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARDS | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
| 1239 | TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-26 |
Show 5 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3117 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Fire | 1996-02-23 |
| 3113 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Drought | 1993-09-10 |
| 930 | SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS | DR | Flood | 1991-12-26 |
| 863 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-05-02 |
| 828 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1989-05-19 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Brown County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 14,072 | 0 | 15 | $7.4B |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 10,293 | 41 | 141 | $369.9M |
| Drought | 7,032 | 0 | 0 | $86.0K |
| Flash Flood | 4,728 | 338 | 24 | $47.6B |
| Heat | 4,079 | 119 | 405 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
533
Total Paid
$9.6M
Avg Per Claim
$18.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 64.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$19.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hail Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Ice Storm 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: Hail
Hail is among the most expensive hazards in the model relative to how little it threatens life. It concentrates on roofs, vehicles and crops, and a single severe storm can generate an insurance loss across a metropolitan area without a single injury.
Worth noting for Brown County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Hail carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), while the county's declaration history is led by Fire. 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
Brown County's closest FEMA peer: Randolph County, AL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Brown County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Brown County shows 25 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Brown County: 15 of 25 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Brown County: NRI composite 64.9 (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 Brown County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Brown 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: 64.9 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 25. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Brown County's NFIP claims file (533 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 Brown County?
The most common disaster type in Brown County is Fire, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (5), Severe Storm (5), Hurricane (3).
How does Brown County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
FEMA lists 25 declaration records for Brown County. That is 20% above the Texas county mean of 20.9. Its count is also 21% 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 Brown County received?
Brown County has received 15 major disaster declarations, representing 60% of all 25 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Brown County filed?
Brown County has 533 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $9.6M in payments, with an average of $18.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Brown County?
No. In Brown County, Hail has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $11.7M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Brown County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Brown County was 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1989 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Brown County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Brown County, Texas has an overall risk score of 64.9 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively High; on community resilience, Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $19.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Brown County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Brown County as of the latest release is Hail (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Relatively Low) and Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hail here at an average of 5.1 times per year, drawn from 193 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 Brown County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events