FEMA Records
26
High volume
Pennsylvania · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Chester County, PA
26 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2021), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 26
- FEMA declarations
- 18
- Major disasters
- 92
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Chester County. Its 26 FEMA declarations are 40% above the Pennsylvania county mean and exceed the count for 75% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 8%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 8%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 26
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 1,912
- 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 Chester County compare?
Chester County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
26 Top 25% higher than 75% 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
Chester County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Pennsylvania county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Chester County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $105.8M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Drought 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 Chester County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 1,912 claims and $37.6M 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 $19.6K. 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. Chester County's 26 federal records stand 40% above the Pennsylvania county mean of 18.6. 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 sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 91.9/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $172.6M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very Low and community resilience Very High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Drought stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 4.9 modeled event-days per year here, based on 196 historical events on record.
Declaration frequency
The FEMA register is busy by both local and national comparisons. It contains 26 entries for Chester County, including 18 Major Disaster records, 40% above the Pennsylvania county mean. Across the 56-year span, that works out to 0.5 declarations a year. Hurricane leads the file with 7 entries. Declaration type records the federal action taken, not every assistance program approved.
71 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Chester County, PA · 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
19/30
26 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.3x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
17/25
26 declarations (1.4x state county average of 19)
Major Disaster Share High
17/25
18 of 26 declarations are major disasters (69%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Chester County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Pennsylvania Avg
+40%
State avg: 18.6
vs. National Avg
+25%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.5
Over 56 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Chester 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
69%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
92
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Chester 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drought | Relatively High | 4.9 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Very High | an average of 12 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 9.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 7.2 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively High | an average of 5.5 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 36 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 735 years |
| Hurricane | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 12 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | an average of 1.3 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 2.8 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 26,693 years |
| Coastal Flooding | No Rating | roughly once every 83 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 7
Flood 6
Severe Storm 5
Snowstorm 4
Biological 2
Severe Ice Storm 1
Drought 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Chester County's federal record, 27% 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 69.2%
of all 26 declarations
Emergency - 8 30.8%
of all 26 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 4 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 2 | |
| 2003 | 2 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 2 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
Show 4 earlier declaration years
| 1973 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
| 1971 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 26 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 26 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4618 | REMNANTS OF HURRICANE IDA | DR | Hurricane | 2021-09-10 |
| 4506 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-30 |
| 3441 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4267 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2016-03-23 |
| 3367 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2014-02-06 |
| 3356 | HURRICANE SANDY | EM | Hurricane | 2012-10-29 |
| 4030 | TROPICAL STORM LEE | DR | Flood | 2011-09-12 |
| 3340 | REMNANTS OF TROPICAL STORM LEE | EM | Flood | 2011-09-08 |
| 4025 | HURRICANE IRENE | DR | Hurricane | 2011-09-03 |
| 3339 | HURRICANE IRENE | EM | Hurricane | 2011-08-29 |
| 1898 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND SNOWSTORMS | DR | Snowstorm | 2010-04-16 |
| 1649 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-06-30 |
| 3235 | HURRICANE KATRINA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1557 | TROPICAL DEPRESSION IVAN | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-19 |
| 1555 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING ASSOCIATED WITH TROPICAL DEPRESSION FRANCES | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-09-19 |
| 1497 | TROPICAL STORMS HENRI AND ISABEL AND RELATED SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-09-26 |
| 3180 | SNOW | EM | Severe Storm | 2003-03-14 |
| 1294 | HURRICANE FLOYD MAJOR DISASTER DECLARATIONS | DR | Hurricane | 1999-09-18 |
| 1093 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1996-01-21 |
| 1085 | BLIZZARD OF 96 | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-13 |
Show 6 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1015 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-03-10 |
| 3105 | SEVERE SNOWFALL & WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-16 |
| 400 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-07-17 |
| 340 | TROPICAL STORM AGNES | DR | Flood | 1972-06-23 |
| 312 | FLOODS | DR | Flood | 1971-09-18 |
| 206 | WATER SHORTAGE | DR | Drought | 1965-08-18 |
Storm Events in Pennsylvania
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Chester County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 9,976 | 18 | 114 | $115.5M |
| Flash Flood | 2,288 | 23 | 8 | $463.2M |
| Winter Weather | 1,670 | 23 | 268 | $566.0K |
| Hail | 1,400 | 0 | 0 | $2.6M |
| Winter Storm | 881 | 14 | 17 | $2.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
1,912
Total Paid
$37.6M
Avg Per Claim
$19.6K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 91.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$172.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively High
Winter Weather Very High
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively High
Riverine Flooding Relatively High
Lightning Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively High
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Coastal Flooding 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: Drought
Drought is the slowest of the modeled hazards and the least visible: it does its damage to agriculture, water supply and soil over seasons rather than hours, so it rarely produces the kind of single-day damage that drives a disaster declaration. FEMA scores it in event-days per year rather than discrete events for exactly that reason.
Worth noting for Chester County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought 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
Chester County's closest FEMA peer: Craig County, VA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Chester County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Chester County shows 26 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Chester County: 18 of 26 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Chester County: NRI composite 91.9 (Relatively Moderate).
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 Chester County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Chester County's NFIP claims file (1,912 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 Chester County?
The most common disaster type in Chester County is Hurricane, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (6), Severe Storm (5), Snowstorm (4).
How does Chester County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Pennsylvania average?
FEMA lists 26 declaration records for Chester County. That is 40% above the Pennsylvania county mean of 18.6. Its count is also 25% 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 Chester County received?
Chester County has received 18 major disaster declarations, representing 69% of all 26 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Chester County filed?
Chester County has 1,912 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $37.6M in payments, with an average of $19.6K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Chester County?
No. In Chester County, Drought has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $105.8M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Chester County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Chester County was 2011, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2021.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Chester County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Chester County, Pennsylvania has an overall risk score of 91.9 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $172.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Chester County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Chester County is Drought (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Winter Weather (Very High) and Heat Wave (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 4.9 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 196 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 Chester County
Chester County, PA has 26 federal declaration records, 40% more than the Pennsylvania county mean of 19; its history sits in PlainHazard's high activity band.
- Within this above-state-average declaration file, major disaster leads with 18 of 26 records; the category describes past federal action, not the next likely hazard. Pennsylvania overview
- The state benchmark and national rank point the same way: this count tops the Pennsylvania mean and the totals for 75% of 3,266 U.S. counties. Most-disaster rankings
- The large NFIP claims file and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records; the guide explains where they overlap and where they do not. Disaster-data guide
An above-average declaration count records past federal responses; it does not predict the next event. Current warnings come from the National Weather Service and local emergency officials.
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.