FEMA Records
16
Below median
Tennessee · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Chester County, TN
16 FEMA disaster declarations (1975-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 16
- FEMA declarations
- 12
- Major disasters
- 44
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Chester County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 16 declarations, more than 27% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 25% below the Tennessee county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 44%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 44%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 16
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 2
- 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 47023 · Chester County 16 declarations · rank 2314/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 16
- MAJOR-MID 75%
- RANK-LOWER #2,314
- PHOTO-FINISH Greene
- NRI-LOW 44
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -25%
Nearest declaration peer: Greene, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Tennessee state profile
Chester County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Chester County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Chester · this county 16
Chester · this county
16 declarations
- Frontier · near 16
Frontier · near
16 declarations
- Greene · near 16
Greene · near
16 declarations
- Terrell · near 16
Terrell · near
16 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Chester County carries 16 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2314 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Chester County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Chester County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Chester County
16 27th percentile higher than 27% 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
Chester County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Chester County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 44.5/100 for this county (Relatively Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $12.8M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively Moderate) and community resilience (Relatively Moderate) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Earthquake, only reaches Relatively 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 163 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 2 claims and $41.8K paid in total. PlainHazard calls 1-49 claims a light registry record, a label for this dataset rather than a finding that flood exposure is low. A short claims history can also reflect insurance take-up, the period covered, or losses that were never insured.
Start with the state benchmark: a Tennessee county averages 21.4 federal declaration records, while Chester County has 16. The gap is 25% 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.
55 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Chester County, TN · 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
12/30
16 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
9/25
16 declarations (0.7x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share Very High
19/25
12 of 16 declarations are major disasters (75%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Chester County
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
75%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
44
Relatively Low
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 163 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 5 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.7 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 14 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 22 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 10 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 2.1 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 59 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 4,461 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 3 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 5.5 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 9
Winter Storm 2
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Tornado 1
Flood 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Chester County's record, 56% 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 - 12 75.0%
of all 16 declarations
Emergency - 4 25.0%
of all 16 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | |
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 16 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 16 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4898 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Winter Storm | 2026-02-06 |
| 3635 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 3625 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | EM | Severe Storm | 2025-04-02 |
| 4514 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-02 |
| 3473 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 1978 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-05-09 |
| 1974 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND ASSOCIATED FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-05-01 |
| 1909 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-05-04 |
| 1856 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-08-21 |
| 3217 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1464 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-05-08 |
| 1275 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-05-12 |
| 1197 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-01-13 |
| 1167 | HEAVY RAINS, TORNADOES, FLOODING, HAIL, HIGH WINDS | DR | Tornado | 1997-03-07 |
| 1010 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM,FLASH FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-02-28 |
| 459 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-03-22 |
Storm Events in Tennessee
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Chester County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 6,558 | 22 | 58 | $107.0M |
| Hail | 1,690 | 0 | 0 | $545.5K |
| Heat | 1,343 | 9 | 15 | $0 |
| Flash Flood | 1,264 | 55 | 3 | $334.4M |
| Winter Weather | 1,088 | 5 | 0 | $261.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
2
Total Paid
$41.8K
Avg Per Claim
$20.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 44.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$12.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Earthquake Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Landslide Very Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Drought Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Hail Very Low
Winter Weather 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: Earthquake
Earthquake is the model's clearest example of a hazard with no season and no warning. Its expected loss is driven less by how often shaking occurs than by how much of the building stock predates modern seismic codes, so exposure can be high in places where nothing has happened for a long time.
Worth noting for Chester County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Earthquake carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Low), while the county's declaration history is led by Severe Storm. 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: Dakota County, MN
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 16 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Chester County: 12 of 16 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Chester County: NRI composite 44.5 (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 Chester County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Chester 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: 44.5 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 16. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 16 FEMA declarations, Chester County sits in the high-volume declaration band - see how that count ranks against other U.S. counties.
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 Chester County?
The most common disaster type in Chester County is Severe Storm, with 9 declarations. Other disaster types include Winter Storm (2), Biological (2), Hurricane (1).
How does Chester County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Tennessee average?
The typical Tennessee county has 21.4 FEMA declaration records; Chester County has 16, or 25% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 23% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Chester County received?
Chester County has received 12 major disaster declarations, representing 75% of all 16 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Chester County filed?
Chester County has 2 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $41.8K in payments, with an average of $20.9K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Chester County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Chester County was 2011, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1975 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Chester County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Chester County, Tennessee has an overall risk score of 44.5 out of 100 (Relatively 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 $12.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Chester County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Chester County as of the latest release is Earthquake (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Tornado (Relatively Moderate) and Cold Wave (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts earthquake here at roughly once every 163 years. 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 Chester County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Tennessee profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events