FEMA Records
28
High volume
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Cherokee County, TX
28 FEMA disaster declarations (1988-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 28
- FEMA declarations
- 18
- Major disasters
- 62
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Cherokee County. Its 28 FEMA declarations are 34% above the Texas county mean and exceed the count for 81% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 38%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 38%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 28
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 66
- 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 48073 · Cherokee County 28 declarations · rank 587/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 28
- MAJOR-MID 64%
- RANK-MID #587
- PHOTO-FINISH Loíza
- NRI-LOW 62
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-ABOVE +34%
Nearest declaration peer: Loíza, PR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Texas state profile
Cherokee County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Cherokee County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Cherokee · this county 28
Cherokee · this county
28 declarations
- Hertford · near 28
Hertford · near
28 declarations
- Loíza · near 28
Loíza · near
28 declarations
- Maunabo · near 28
Maunabo · near
28 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Cherokee County carries 28 FEMA declaration records, ranked 587 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Cherokee County ranks in the national declaration registry
Cherokee County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Cherokee County
28 Top 19% higher than 81% 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
Cherokee County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Cherokee County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $6.8M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Strong Wind carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively 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 Cherokee County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 66 paid claims, totaling $624.7K. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $9.5K 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. Cherokee County's 28 federal records stand 34% 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, 61.6/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $17.3M in annualized losses), and a Relatively High social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively Low community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Strong Wind stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 3.8 times per year here, based on 145 historical events on record.
73 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Cherokee 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
20/30
28 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.4x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
17/25
28 declarations (1.3x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share High
16/25
18 of 28 declarations are major disasters (64%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
9 different disaster types declared in Cherokee County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Cherokee 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
64%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
62
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Cherokee 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 3.8 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 23 modeled event-days per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 19 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1 time per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 635 years |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 25 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 62 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.3 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 3.6 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,295 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 7
Severe Storm 5
Fire 5
Flood 3
Severe Ice Storm 3
Biological 2
Other 1
Coastal Storm 1
Tornado 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Cherokee County's federal record, 25% 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 - 18 64.3%
of all 28 declarations
Emergency - 10 35.7%
of all 28 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 3 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 2 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
Show 3 earlier declaration years
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1989 | 2 | |
| 1988 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 28 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 28 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4798 | HURRICANE BERYL | DR | Hurricane | 2024-07-09 |
| 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 |
| 3540 | TROPICAL STORMS MARCO AND LAURA | EM | Hurricane | 2020-08-24 |
| 4485 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3458 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4269 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2016-04-25 |
| 4223 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-05-29 |
| 4029 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2011-09-09 |
| 1791 | HURRICANE IKE | DR | Hurricane | 2008-09-13 |
| 3294 | HURRICANE IKE | EM | Hurricane | 2008-09-10 |
| 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 |
| 3171 | LOSS OF THE SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA | EM | Other | 2003-02-01 |
| 1379 | TX-TROPICAL STORM ALLISON-06-06-2001 | DR | Coastal Storm | 2001-06-09 |
Show 8 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1356 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2001-01-08 |
| 3142 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARDS | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
| 1239 | TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-26 |
| 3117 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Fire | 1996-02-23 |
| 863 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-05-02 |
| 828 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1989-05-19 |
| 823 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1989-04-23 |
| 802 | SEVERE STORMS & TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1987-11-20 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Cherokee 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
66
Total Paid
$624.7K
Avg Per Claim
$9.5K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 61.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$17.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Strong Wind Relatively High
Drought Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Hurricane Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Earthquake 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: Strong Wind
Strong Wind covers damaging non-thunderstorm, non-tornadic wind, the kind produced by steep pressure gradients and downslope events. It is a broad, frequent, low-drama hazard: roofs, signage, power lines and high-profile vehicles, spread across a wide area rather than concentrated on a path.
Worth noting for Cherokee County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Strong Wind carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively 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
Cherokee County's closest FEMA peer: Tuscaloosa County, AL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Cherokee County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Cherokee County shows 28 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Cherokee County: 18 of 28 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Cherokee County: NRI composite 61.6 (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 Cherokee County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Cherokee 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: 61.6 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 28. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Cherokee County's NFIP claims file (66 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 Cherokee County?
The most common disaster type in Cherokee County is Hurricane, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (5), Fire (5), Flood (3).
How does Cherokee County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
FEMA lists 28 declaration records for Cherokee County. That is 34% above the Texas county mean of 20.9. Its count is also 35% 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 Cherokee County received?
Cherokee County has received 18 major disaster declarations, representing 64% of all 28 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Cherokee County filed?
Cherokee County has 66 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $624.7K in payments, with an average of $9.5K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Cherokee County?
No. In Cherokee County, Strong Wind has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $6.8M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Cherokee County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Cherokee County was 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1988 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Cherokee County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Cherokee County, Texas has an overall risk score of 61.6 out of 100 (Relatively Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively High, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $17.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Cherokee County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Cherokee County is Strong Wind (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Moderate) and Heat Wave (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts strong wind here at an average of 3.8 times per year, drawn from 145 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 Cherokee County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events