FEMA Records
27
High volume
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Comal County, TX
27 FEMA disaster declarations (1972-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 27
- FEMA declarations
- 14
- Major disasters
- 93
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Comal County. Its 27 FEMA declarations are 29% above the Texas county mean and exceed the count for 78% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 7%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 7%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 27
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 1,218
- 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.
How does Comal County compare?
Comal County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
27 Top 22% higher than 78% 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
Comal County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Texas county average
What does Comal County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 1,218 claims and $60.7M 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 $49.9K. 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. Comal County's 27 federal records stand 29% 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 sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 92.7/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $143.7M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Low and community resilience Relatively High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Riverine Flooding stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 3.9 times per year here, based on 110 historical events on record.
Declaration frequency
The FEMA register is busy by both local and national comparisons. It contains 27 entries for Comal County, including 14 Major Disaster records, 29% above the Texas county mean. Across the 54-year span, that works out to 0.5 declarations a year. Flood leads the file with 6 entries. Declaration type records the federal action taken, not every assistance program approved.
69 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Comal 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
27 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.3x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
16/25
27 declarations (1.3x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share High
13/25
14 of 27 declarations are major disasters (52%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Comal County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Texas Avg
+29%
State avg: 20.9
vs. National Avg
+30%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.5
Over 54 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Comal 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
52%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
93
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Comal 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively High | an average of 3.9 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively High | an average of 3.9 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively High | roughly once every 4 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 3.5 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 48 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 720 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 10 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 86 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 25 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,899 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 6
Hurricane 6
Fire 6
Severe Storm 3
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Comal County's record, 22% of its declarations. Federal flood declarations cover two mechanisms that behave very differently: riverine flooding, which builds over days as a watershed drains and is usually forecast well in advance, and flash flooding, which can arrive in under an hour from rainfall that fell somewhere upstream.
Flood is also the one hazard class where a second federal dataset exists for the same events. The National Flood Insurance Program records what was actually paid on insured losses, so it measures a narrower thing than the declaration count: uninsured damage, and flooding outside mapped special flood hazard areas, never enters it. Reading the two together is more informative than either alone.
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 - 14 51.9%
of all 27 declarations
Emergency - 10 37.0%
of all 27 declarations
Fire Management - 3 11.1%
of all 27 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2006 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 3 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
Show 4 earlier declaration years
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 27 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 27 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3649 | FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2026-07-18 |
| 4705 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Winter Storm | 2023-04-21 |
| 4586 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-19 |
| 3554 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-14 |
| 4485 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3458 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4332 | HURRICANE HARVEY | DR | Hurricane | 2017-08-25 |
| 4245 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-11-25 |
| 4223 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-05-29 |
| 3313 | TROPICAL STORM ALEX | EM | Hurricane | 2010-06-29 |
| 3294 | HURRICANE IKE | EM | Hurricane | 2008-09-10 |
| 3284 | WILDFIRES | EM | Fire | 2008-03-14 |
| 2666 | PURGATORY ROAD FIRE | FM | Fire | 2006-08-16 |
| 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 |
| 1425 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2002-07-04 |
| 2290 | PURGATORY FIRE | FM | Fire | 2000-01-04 |
| 3142 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARDS | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
Show 7 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2249 | FISCHER FIRE | FM | Fire | 1999-03-02 |
| 1257 | TX-FLOODING 10/18/98 | DR | Flood | 1998-10-21 |
| 1239 | TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-26 |
| 1179 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1997-07-07 |
| 3113 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Drought | 1993-09-10 |
| 930 | SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS | DR | Flood | 1991-12-26 |
| 333 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-05-20 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Comal 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 NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
1,218
Total Paid
$60.7M
Avg Per Claim
$49.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 92.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$143.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Riverine Flooding Relatively High
Hail Relatively High
Tornado Relatively High
Winter Weather Relatively High
Lightning Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Landslide Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) Ratings reflect relative scores among all US counties. Data: hazards.fema.gov/nri
The model's sharpest exposure here: Riverine Flooding
Riverine Flooding is the model's measure of a watershed draining more water than its channel can carry. Unlike flash flooding it usually builds over days and is forecast in advance, which makes it the hazard where warning time most reliably converts into reduced harm.
For Comal County the two measures on this page point the same way: Riverine Flooding is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively High), and Flood 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
Comal County's closest FEMA peer: Washington County, AL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Comal County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Comal County shows 27 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Comal County: 14 of 27 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Comal County: NRI composite 92.7 (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 Comal County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Comal County's NFIP claims file (1,218 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 Comal County?
The most common disaster type in Comal County is Flood, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (6), Fire (6), Severe Storm (3).
How does Comal County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
FEMA lists 27 declaration records for Comal County. That is 29% above the Texas county mean of 20.9. Its count is also 30% 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 Comal County received?
Comal County has received 14 major disaster declarations, representing 52% of all 27 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Comal County filed?
Comal County has 1,218 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $60.7M in payments, with an average of $49.9K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Comal County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Comal County was 1999, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1972 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Comal County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Comal County, Texas has an overall risk score of 92.7 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Low and community resilience is Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $143.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Comal County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Comal County as of the latest release is Riverine Flooding (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively High) and Tornado (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts riverine flooding here at an average of 3.9 times per year, drawn from 110 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.
What this means for Comal County
Comal County, TX has 27 federal declaration records, 29% more than the Texas county mean of 21; its history sits in PlainHazard's high activity band.
- Within this above-state-average declaration file, major disaster leads with 14 of 27 records; the category describes past federal action, not the next likely hazard. Texas overview
- The state benchmark and national rank point the same way: this count tops the Texas mean and the totals for 78% 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.