FEMA Records
15
Below median
Georgia · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Coweta County, GA
15 FEMA disaster declarations (1977-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 15
- FEMA declarations
- 8
- Major disasters
- 66
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Coweta County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 15 declarations, more than 23% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 14% below the Georgia county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 34%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 34%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 15
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 38
- 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 13077 · Coweta County 15 declarations · rank 2491/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 15
- MAJOR-MID 53%
- RANK-LOWER #2,491
- PHOTO-FINISH Polk
- NRI-LOW 66
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-BELOW -14%
Nearest declaration peer: Polk, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Georgia state profile
Coweta County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Coweta County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Coweta · this county 15
Coweta · this county
15 declarations
- Flathead · near 15
Flathead · near
15 declarations
- Murray · near 15
Murray · near
15 declarations
- Polk · near 15
Polk · near
15 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Coweta County carries 15 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2491 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Coweta County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Coweta County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Coweta County
15 23rd percentile higher than 23% 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
Coweta County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Coweta County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $18.2M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Tornado carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). 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 Coweta County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 65.6/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $31.9M in annualized losses), and a Very Low social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively Moderate community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Tornado carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 3 years here, based on 24 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 38 claims and $461.5K 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 Georgia county averages 17.4 federal declaration records, while Coweta County has 15. The gap is 14% 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
Coweta County, GA · 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
11/30
15 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
15 declarations (0.9x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share High
13/25
8 of 15 declarations are major disasters (53%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Coweta County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Coweta 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
53%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
66
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Coweta 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5.1 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.5 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 63 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 2.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 594 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 15 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,562 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 46 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 1.6 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 4
Severe Storm 3
Biological 2
Severe Ice Storm 2
Winter Storm 1
Tropical Storm 1
Tornado 1
Drought 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Coweta 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 - 8 53.3%
of all 15 declarations
Emergency - 7 46.7%
of all 15 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 15 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 15 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3642 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 3616 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-26 |
| 4600 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2021-05-05 |
| 4501 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-29 |
| 3464 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4338 | HURRICANE IRMA | DR | Hurricane | 2017-09-15 |
| 3387 | HURRICANE IRMA | EM | Hurricane | 2017-09-08 |
| 4165 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2014-03-06 |
| 3368 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2014-02-11 |
| 1973 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND ASSOCIATED FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-04-29 |
| 1858 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-09-24 |
| 3218 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1071 | HURRICANE OPAL | DR | Hurricane | 1995-10-10 |
| 1033 | TORNADOES, FLOODING TORRENTIAL RAIN(TROP STORM ALBERTO) | DR | Tornado | 1994-07-07 |
| 3044 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-07-20 |
Storm Events in Georgia
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Coweta County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 9,617 | 15 | 75 | $65.4M |
| Drought | 1,363 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Hail | 1,257 | 0 | 0 | $61.8M |
| Flash Flood | 1,154 | 0 | 3 | $29.3M |
| Tropical Storm | 655 | 28 | 19 | $855.3M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
38
Total Paid
$461.5K
Avg Per Claim
$12.1K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 65.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$31.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Earthquake Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Drought Relatively Low
Landslide 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: Tornado
Tornado exposure is the most spatially concentrated in the model: total destruction along a narrow corridor with intact property either side. County-level averages therefore understate severity badly for anyone actually in the path, and overstate it for everyone else.
Worth noting for Coweta County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Tornado carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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
Coweta County's closest FEMA peer: Clinton County, IL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Coweta County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Coweta County: NRI composite 65.6 (Relatively Low).
Similar Major-disaster share
Coweta County: 8 of 15 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Coweta County shows 15 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
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 Coweta County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Coweta 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: 65.6 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 15. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 15 FEMA declarations, Coweta 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 Coweta County?
The most common disaster type in Coweta County is Hurricane, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (3), Biological (2), Severe Ice Storm (2).
How does Coweta County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Georgia average?
The typical Georgia county has 17.4 FEMA declaration records; Coweta County has 15, or 14% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 28% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Coweta County received?
Coweta County has received 8 major disaster declarations, representing 53% of all 15 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Coweta County filed?
Coweta County has 38 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $461.5K in payments, with an average of $12.1K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Coweta County?
No. In Coweta County, Tornado has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $18.2M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Coweta County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Coweta County was 2014, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1977 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Coweta County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Coweta County, Georgia has an overall risk score of 65.6 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $31.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Coweta County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Coweta County is Tornado (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively Moderate) and Ice Storm (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts tornado here at roughly once every 3 years, drawn from 24 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 Coweta County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Georgia profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events