FEMA Records
20
Above median
Virginia · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Buena Vista (city), VA
20 FEMA disaster declarations (1972-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 20
- FEMA declarations
- 14
- Major disasters
- 3
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Buena Vista (city) 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 2% below the Virginia county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 3%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 3%
- 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
- 276
- 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 Buena Vista (city) compare?
Buena Vista (city) vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
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 · 2026-08-03
Buena Vista (city)'s FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Virginia county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Buena Vista (city) is led by Riverine Flooding (about $1.8M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Hurricane carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Very 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 Buena Vista (city)'s hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 276 paid claims, totaling $4.0M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $14.5K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Virginia county averages 20.4 federal declaration records, while Buena Vista (city) has 20. The gap is 2% 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.
Declaration frequency
Nationally, Buena Vista (city)'s 20 FEMA records form a high-volume history; within Virginia, however, the count is 2% below the county mean. 14 entries carry the Major Disaster classification. The largest incident group is Flood, appearing 6 times. The full 54-year record averages 0.4 declarations annually. A DR label alone does not say whether Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, or both followed.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits at the very bottom of FEMA's National Risk Index nationally, a composite score of 3.3/100 (rated Very Low). Projected losses are minimal, Expected Annual Loss reads Very Low (roughly $2.4M in annualized losses), and the county's exposure is shaped by a Relatively Moderate social-vulnerability profile and Relatively Moderate community resilience. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Hurricane, only reaches Very 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 17 years here, based on 8 historical events on record.
59 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Buena Vista (city), VA · 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
12/25
20 declarations (1.0x state county average of 20)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
14 of 20 declarations are major disasters (70%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Buena Vista (city)
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Virginia Avg
-2%
State avg: 20.4
vs. National Avg
-3%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.4
Over 54 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Buena Vista (city)
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
3
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Buena Vista (city)?
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 | Very Low | roughly once every 17 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 43 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,085 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 93 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | an average of 3.1 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | an average of 3.1 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 12 times per year |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 3.2 times per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 910 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 658 years |
| Drought | No Rating | 3.4 modeled event-days per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 6
Hurricane 5
Snowstorm 4
Biological 2
Severe Storm 2
Winter Storm 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Buena Vista (city)'s record, 30% 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 - 14 70.0%
of all 20 declarations
Emergency - 6 30.0%
of all 20 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 3 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 2 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1972 | 1 | |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3631 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-23 |
| 4512 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-02 |
| 3448 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 3403 | HURRICANE FLORENCE | EM | Hurricane | 2018-09-11 |
| 3359 | HURRICANE SANDY | EM | Hurricane | 2012-10-29 |
| 4072 | SEVERE STORMS AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2012-07-27 |
| 1874 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2010-02-16 |
| 3240 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-12 |
| 1491 | HURRICANE ISABEL | DR | Hurricane | 2003-09-18 |
| 1135 | HURRICANE FRAN AND ASSOCIATED SEVERE STORM COND | DR | Hurricane | 1996-09-06 |
| 1098 | FLOODING, HIGH WINDS, AND WIND DRIVEN RAIN | DR | Flood | 1996-01-27 |
| 1086 | BLIZZARD OF 96 (SEVERE SNOW STORM) | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-13 |
| 1059 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-07-01 |
| 1014 | SEVERE ICE STORMS, FLOODING | DR | Snowstorm | 1994-03-10 |
| 3112 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-25 |
| 944 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1992-05-19 |
| 755 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1985-11-09 |
| 359 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-10-10 |
| 358 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-10-07 |
| 339 | TROPICAL STORM AGNES | DR | Flood | 1972-06-23 |
Storm Events in Virginia
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Buena Vista (city).
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 8,940 | 13 | 31 | $123.1M |
| Flood | 2,300 | 4 | 0 | $85.1M |
| Winter Weather | 2,049 | 6 | 32 | $902.0K |
| Flash Flood | 1,942 | 13 | 4 | $244.2M |
| Heavy Rain | 1,566 | 0 | 0 | $2.5M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
276
Total Paid
$4.0M
Avg Per Claim
$14.5K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 3.3/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$2.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hurricane Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Avalanche Very Low
Hail Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Drought No Rating
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.
Worth noting for Buena Vista (city): the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Hurricane carries the highest modeled rating (Very Low), 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
Buena Vista (city)'s closest FEMA peer: Barbour County, WV
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Buena Vista (city). Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Buena Vista (city) shows 20 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Buena Vista (city): 14 of 20 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Buena Vista (city): NRI composite 3.3 (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 Buena Vista (city) - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Buena Vista (city)'s NFIP claims file (276 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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Buena Vista (city)?
The most common disaster type in Buena Vista (city) is Flood, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (5), Snowstorm (4), Biological (2).
How does Buena Vista (city)'s FEMA declaration record compare with the Virginia average?
The typical Virginia county has 20.4 FEMA declaration records; Buena Vista (city) has 20, or 2% 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 Buena Vista (city) received?
Buena Vista (city) has received 14 major disaster declarations, representing 70% of all 20 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Buena Vista (city) filed?
Buena Vista (city) has 276 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $4.0M in payments, with an average of $14.5K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Buena Vista (city)?
No. In Buena Vista (city), Hurricane has the highest National Risk Index rating (Very Low), 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 Buena Vista (city)?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Buena Vista (city) was 1996, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1972 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Buena Vista (city)?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Buena Vista (city), Virginia has an overall risk score of 3.3 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Moderate, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $2.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Buena Vista (city)?
FEMA's NRI data points to Buena Vista (city) as of the latest release is Hurricane (risk rating: Very Low). Other significant hazards include Lightning (Relatively Low) and Earthquake (Very Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hurricane here at roughly once every 17 years, drawn from 8 historical events on record. FEMA derives these ratings from historical event frequency, the assets exposed, and the community's vulnerability profile.
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 Buena Vista (city)
Against a Virginia county mean of 20 declarations, Buena Vista (city), VA records 20, or 2% fewer. PlainHazard classifies that historical total as high activity.
- Major Disaster is the largest group (14 of 20) in a declaration history that remains below its state benchmark; frequency here is not a forecast. Virginia overview
- Nationally the county exceeds 46% of recorded county totals, but its own Virginia benchmark is higher. The ranking keeps those two contexts separate. Most-disaster rankings
- Use the data guide to separate this mid-volume insurance-claims file from declaration counts and modeled NRI risk. 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.