FEMA Records
33
Very high volume
Oklahoma · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Carter County, OK
33 FEMA disaster declarations (1971-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 33
- FEMA declarations
- 20
- Major disasters
- 75
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Carter County. Its 33 FEMA declarations are 2% above the Oklahoma county mean and exceed the count for 91% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 25%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 25%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 33
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 84
- 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 40019 · Carter County 33 declarations · rank 264/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 33
- MAJOR-MID 61%
- RANK-UPPER #264
- PHOTO-FINISH Nelson
- NRI-LOW 75
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-ABOVE +2%
Nearest declaration peer: Nelson, ND (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Oklahoma state profile
Carter County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Carter County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Carter · this county 33
Carter · this county
33 declarations
- Garvin · near 33
Garvin · near
33 declarations
- Monterey · near 33
Monterey · near
33 declarations
- Nelson · near 33
Nelson · near
33 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Carter County carries 33 FEMA declaration records, ranked 264 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Carter County ranks in the national declaration registry
Carter County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Carter County
33 Top 9% higher than 91% 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
Carter County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Carter County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 84 paid claims, totaling $2.5M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $30.1K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Carter County's 33 federal records stand 2% above the Oklahoma county mean of 32.2. 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, 74.9/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $28.0M in annualized losses), and a Relatively High social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively Moderate community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Tornado stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 1 years here, based on 44 historical events on record.
70 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Carter County, OK · 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
24/30
33 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.6x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
13/25
33 declarations (1.0x state county average of 32)
Major Disaster Share High
15/25
20 of 33 declarations are major disasters (61%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Carter County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Carter 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
61%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
75
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Carter 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tornado | Relatively High | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hail | Relatively High | an average of 9.1 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 20 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 186 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 3.7 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 47 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 6.8 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 784 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 54 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 95 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 13
Fire 7
Severe Ice Storm 6
Tornado 3
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Flood 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Carter County's record, 39% 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 - 20 60.6%
of all 33 declarations
Emergency - 9 27.3%
of all 33 declarations
Fire Management - 4 12.1%
of all 33 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 3 | |
| 2009 | 3 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 3 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 4 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
Show 7 earlier declaration years
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1987 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
| 1971 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 33 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 33 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5620 | HOSPITAL ROAD FIRE | FM | Fire | 2026-02-19 |
| 4776 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 2024-04-30 |
| 4587 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-24 |
| 3555 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-17 |
| 4530 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-05 |
| 3462 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4222 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-05-26 |
| 3316 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Storm | 2011-02-02 |
| 1917 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-05-24 |
| 1876 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-02-25 |
| 3308 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Storm | 2010-01-30 |
| 1846 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2009-06-19 |
| 2811 | HEALDTON CARTER FIRE | FM | Fire | 2009-04-10 |
| 1820 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-02-15 |
| 3280 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2007-12-10 |
| 3272 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2007-01-14 |
| 2618 | RATCLIFF FIRE | FM | Fire | 2006-01-13 |
| 1623 | EXTREME WILDFIRE THREAT | DR | Fire | 2006-01-10 |
| 2588 | VELMA FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2005-11-30 |
| 3219 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
Show 13 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1465 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-05-10 |
| 1384 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2001-06-29 |
| 1355 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2001-01-05 |
| 3158 | SEVERE WINTER AND ICE STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2000-12-28 |
| 1349 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-11-27 |
| 3118 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Fire | 1996-02-27 |
| 1058 | TORNADOES, SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 1995-06-26 |
| 991 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1993-05-12 |
| 866 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-05-18 |
| 794 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1987-07-09 |
| 576 | SEVERE STORMS & TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1979-04-13 |
| 392 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, & TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1973-06-13 |
| 297 | HEAVY RAINS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1970-10-14 |
Storm Events in Oklahoma
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Carter County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 5,894 | 0 | 1 | $19.8M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 5,592 | 6 | 36 | $199.5M |
| Drought | 2,935 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Heat | 2,134 | 7 | 428 | $0 |
| Excessive Heat | 1,771 | 2 | 401 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
84
Total Paid
$2.5M
Avg Per Claim
$30.1K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 74.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$28.0M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Tornado Relatively High
Hail Relatively High
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively High
Drought Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Hurricane 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: Tornado
Tornado exposure is the most spatially concentrated in the model: total destruction along a narrow corridor with intact property either side. County-level averages therefore understate severity badly for anyone actually in the path, and overstate it for everyone else.
For Carter County the two measures on this page point the same way: Tornado 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
Carter County's closest FEMA peer: Smith County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Carter County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Carter County shows 33 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Carter County: 20 of 33 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Carter County: NRI composite 74.9 (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 Carter County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Carter 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: 74.9 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 33. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Carter County's NFIP claims file (84 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 Carter County?
The most common disaster type in Carter County is Severe Storm, with 13 declarations. Other disaster types include Fire (7), Severe Ice Storm (6), Tornado (3).
How does Carter County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Oklahoma average?
FEMA lists 33 declaration records for Carter County. That is 2% above the Oklahoma county mean of 32.2. Its count is also 59% 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 Carter County received?
Carter County has received 20 major disaster declarations, representing 61% of all 33 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Carter County filed?
Carter County has 84 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $2.5M in payments, with an average of $30.1K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Carter County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Carter County was 2001, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1971 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Carter County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Carter County, Oklahoma has an overall risk score of 74.9 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively High; on community resilience, Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $28.0M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Carter County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Carter County is Tornado (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively High) and Heat Wave (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts tornado here at roughly once every 1 years, drawn from 44 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Carter County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Oklahoma profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events