FEMA Records
28
High volume
South Carolina · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Colleton County, SC
28 FEMA disaster declarations (1989-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 28
- FEMA declarations
- 14
- Major disasters
- 85
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Colleton County. Its 28 FEMA declarations are 9% above the South Carolina 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 15%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 15%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 28
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 766
- 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 45029 · Colleton County 28 declarations · rank 575/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 28
- MAJOR-MID 50%
- RANK-MID #575
- PHOTO-FINISH Loíza
- NRI-MID 85
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-ABOVE +9%
Nearest declaration peer: Loíza, PR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · South Carolina state profile
Colleton County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Colleton County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Colleton · this county 28
Colleton · 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 Colleton County carries 28 FEMA declaration records, ranked 575 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Colleton County ranks in the national declaration registry
Colleton County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Colleton 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
Colleton County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Colleton County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 766 claims and $7.2M 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 $9.4K. 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. Colleton County's 28 federal records stand 9% above the South Carolina county mean of 25.6. 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 85.5/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $37.8M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very High and community resilience Relatively Moderate, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Hurricane stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 3 years here, based on 118 historical events on record.
65 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Colleton County, SC · 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
14/25
28 declarations (1.1x state county average of 26)
Major Disaster Share High
13/25
14 of 28 declarations are major disasters (50%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Colleton County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Colleton 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
50%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
85
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Colleton 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | Relatively High | roughly once every 3 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 189 years |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 709 years |
| Coastal Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.6 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 9.1 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.6 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 66 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 22 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 2.9 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 16
Tropical Storm 3
Severe Storm 3
Biological 2
Severe Ice Storm 2
Winter Storm 1
Flood 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Colleton County's federal record, 57% 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).
Emergency - 14 50.0%
of all 28 declarations
Major Disaster - 14 50.0%
of all 28 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 4 | |
| 2023 | 2 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2019 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 3 | |
| 2017 | 3 | |
| 2016 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 2 | |
| 1989 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3632 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-23 |
| 4829 | HURRICANE HELENE | DR | Hurricane | 2024-09-29 |
| 4835 | TROPICAL STORM DEBBY | DR | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-29 |
| 3619 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-26 |
| 3606 | HURRICANE DEBBY | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-08-05 |
| 3597 | HURRICANE IDALIA | EM | Hurricane | 2023-08-31 |
| 4677 | HURRICANE IAN | DR | Hurricane | 2022-11-21 |
| 3585 | HURRICANE IAN | EM | Hurricane | 2022-09-29 |
| 4542 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2020-05-01 |
| 4492 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-27 |
| 3470 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4464 | HURRICANE DORIAN | DR | Hurricane | 2019-09-30 |
| 3421 | HURRICANE DORIAN | EM | Hurricane | 2019-09-01 |
| 4394 | HURRICANE FLORENCE | DR | Hurricane | 2018-09-16 |
| 3400 | HURRICANE FLORENCE | EM | Hurricane | 2018-09-10 |
| 4346 | HURRICANE IRMA | DR | Hurricane | 2017-10-16 |
| 3386 | HURRICANE IRMA | EM | Hurricane | 2017-09-07 |
| 4286 | HURRICANE MATTHEW | DR | Hurricane | 2016-10-11 |
| 3378 | HURRICANE MATTHEW | EM | Hurricane | 2016-10-06 |
| 4241 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2015-10-05 |
Show 8 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3373 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | EM | Severe Storm | 2015-10-03 |
| 4166 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2014-03-12 |
| 3369 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2014-02-12 |
| 3233 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1313 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-01-31 |
| 1299 | HURRICANE FLOYD MAJOR DISASTER DECLARATIONS | DR | Hurricane | 1999-09-21 |
| 3145 | HURRICANE FLOYD EMERGENCY DECLARATIONS | EM | Hurricane | 1999-09-15 |
| 843 | HURRICANE HUGO | DR | Hurricane | 1989-09-22 |
Storm Events in South Carolina
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Colleton County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 5,845 | 11 | 40 | $11.4M |
| Hail | 1,207 | 0 | 0 | $25.1M |
| Flash Flood | 954 | 20 | 35 | $150.4M |
| Strong Wind | 395 | 4 | 13 | $711.8K |
| Tornado | 320 | 9 | 110 | $127.1M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
766
Total Paid
$7.2M
Avg Per Claim
$9.4K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 85.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$37.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hurricane Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Coastal Flooding Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Hail Very Low
Landslide 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: 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.
For Colleton County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hurricane is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively High), and Hurricane 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
Colleton County's closest FEMA peer: Beaver County, OK
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Colleton County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Colleton County shows 28 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Colleton County: 14 of 28 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Colleton County: NRI composite 85.5 (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 Colleton County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Colleton 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: 85.5 (Relatively Moderate).
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
Colleton County's NFIP claims file (766 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 Colleton County?
The most common disaster type in Colleton County is Hurricane, with 16 declarations. Other disaster types include Tropical Storm (3), Severe Storm (3), Biological (2).
How does Colleton County's FEMA declaration record compare with the South Carolina average?
FEMA lists 28 declaration records for Colleton County. That is 9% above the South Carolina county mean of 25.6. 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 Colleton County received?
Colleton County has received 14 major disaster declarations, representing 50% of all 28 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Colleton County filed?
Colleton County has 766 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $7.2M in payments, with an average of $9.4K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Colleton County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Colleton County was 2024, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1989 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Colleton County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Colleton County, South Carolina has an overall risk score of 85.5 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very High and community resilience is Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $37.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Colleton County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Colleton County is Hurricane (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Earthquake (Relatively Moderate) and Wildfire (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hurricane here at roughly once every 3 years, drawn from 118 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 Colleton County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · South Carolina profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events