FEMA Records
19
Below median
New York · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Cortland County, NY
19 FEMA disaster declarations (1976-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 19
- FEMA declarations
- 13
- Major disasters
- 51
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Cortland County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 19 declarations, more than 41% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 23% below the New York county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 49%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 49%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 19
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 357
- 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 36023 · Cortland County 19 declarations · rank 1807/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 19
- MAJOR-MID 68%
- RANK-LOWER #1,807
- PHOTO-FINISH Bartow
- NRI-LOW 51
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -23%
Nearest declaration peer: Bartow, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · New York state profile
Cortland County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Cortland County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Bartow · near 19
Bartow · near
19 declarations
- Cortland · this county 19
Cortland · this county
19 declarations
- Union · near 19
Union · near
19 declarations
- Warren · near 19
Warren · near
19 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Cortland County carries 19 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1807 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Cortland County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Cortland County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Cortland County
19 41st percentile higher than 41% 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
Cortland County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Cortland County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 357 paid claims, totaling $3.4M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $9.6K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a New York county averages 24.5 federal declaration records, while Cortland County has 19. The gap is 23% 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 51.2/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $17.1M in annualized losses), and a Relatively Low social-vulnerability profile combined with Very High community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Riverine Flooding, 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 an average of 1.9 times per year here, based on 52 historical events on record.
59 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Cortland County, NY · 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
14/30
19 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25
19 declarations (0.8x state county average of 25)
Major Disaster Share High
17/25
13 of 19 declarations are major disasters (68%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Cortland County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Cortland 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
68%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
51
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Cortland 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 Low | an average of 1.9 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 48 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 21 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,976 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 29 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 3.8 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 2.6 times per year |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 1.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 59,799 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 5
Flood 4
Hurricane 3
Biological 2
Snowstorm 2
Other 2
Fire 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Cortland County's record, 26% 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 - 13 68.4%
of all 19 declarations
Emergency - 6 31.6%
of all 19 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 2 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 2 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 19 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 19 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4814 | SEVERE STORM, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2024-08-29 |
| 4625 | REMNANTS OF TROPICAL STORM FRED | DR | Hurricane | 2021-10-08 |
| 4480 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-20 |
| 3434 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4472 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2019-12-19 |
| 4322 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2017-07-12 |
| 4129 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2013-07-12 |
| 3351 | HURRICANE SANDY | EM | Hurricane | 2012-10-28 |
| 1857 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-09-01 |
| 1650 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-07-01 |
| 3262 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-30 |
| 1589 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2005-04-19 |
| 1534 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-08-03 |
| 3186 | POWER OUTAGE | EM | Other | 2003-08-23 |
| 1391 | FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS | DR | Fire | 2001-09-11 |
| 3155 | WEST NILE VIRUS | EM | Other | 2000-10-11 |
| 1095 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1996-01-24 |
| 3107 | SEVERE BLIZZARD | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-17 |
| 487 | STORMS, RAINS, LANDSLIDES & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-10-02 |
Storm Events in New York
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Cortland County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 8,295 | 6 | 45 | $45.0M |
| Winter Weather | 2,261 | 7 | 17 | $705.5K |
| Flash Flood | 1,775 | 23 | 3 | $674.3M |
| Strong Wind | 1,399 | 2 | 12 | $9.2M |
| Winter Storm | 1,228 | 13 | 2 | $4.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
357
Total Paid
$3.4M
Avg Per Claim
$9.6K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 51.2/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$17.1M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Landslide Relatively Low
Hurricane Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Hail Very Low
Avalanche Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Drought 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: 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.
Worth noting for Cortland County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Riverine Flooding 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
Cortland County's closest FEMA peer: Cumberland County, PA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Cortland County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Cortland County shows 19 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Cortland County: 13 of 19 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Cortland County: NRI composite 51.2 (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 Cortland County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Cortland 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: 51.2 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 19. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Cortland County's NFIP claims file (357 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 Cortland County?
The most common disaster type in Cortland County is Severe Storm, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (4), Hurricane (3), Biological (2).
How does Cortland County's FEMA declaration record compare with the New York average?
The typical New York county has 24.5 FEMA declaration records; Cortland County has 19, or 23% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 8% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Cortland County received?
Cortland County has received 13 major disaster declarations, representing 68% of all 19 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Cortland County filed?
Cortland County has 357 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $3.4M in payments, with an average of $9.6K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Cortland County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Cortland County was 2020, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1976 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Cortland County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Cortland County, New York has an overall risk score of 51.2 out of 100 (Relatively Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Low and community resilience is Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $17.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Cortland County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Cortland County is Riverine Flooding (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Landslide (Relatively Low) and Hurricane (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts riverine flooding here at an average of 1.9 times per year, drawn from 52 historical events on record. The underlying methodology weighs historical event frequency against 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 Cortland County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · New York profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events