FEMA Records
32
Very high volume
Alabama · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Cullman County, AL
32 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 32
- FEMA declarations
- 23
- Major disasters
- 82
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Cullman County. Its 32 FEMA declarations are 24% above the Alabama county mean and exceed the count for 89% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 18%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 18%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 32
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 30
- 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 01043 · Cullman County 32 declarations · rank 326/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 32
- MAJOR-MID 72%
- RANK-UPPER #326
- PHOTO-FINISH Perry
- NRI-MID 82
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-ABOVE +24%
Nearest declaration peer: Perry, MS (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Alabama state profile
Cullman County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Cullman County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Cullman · this county 32
Cullman · this county
32 declarations
- East Carroll · near 32
East Carroll · near
32 declarations
- Nicholas · near 32
Nicholas · near
32 declarations
- Perry · near 32
Perry · near
32 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Cullman County carries 32 FEMA declaration records, ranked 326 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Cullman County ranks in the national declaration registry
Cullman County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Cullman County
32 Top 11% higher than 89% 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
Cullman County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Cullman County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $14.9M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Strong Wind carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High). 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 Cullman County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 81.9/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $34.8M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively High and community resilience Relatively Low, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Strong Wind stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 5.1 times per year here, based on 192 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 30 claims and $563.6K 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.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Cullman County's 32 federal records stand 24% above the Alabama county mean of 25.8. 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.
74 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Cullman County, AL · 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) Very High
23/30
32 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.5x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
15/25
32 declarations (1.2x state county average of 26)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
23 of 32 declarations are major disasters (72%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Cullman County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Cullman 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
72%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
82
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Cullman 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 5.1 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively High | an average of 1.3 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 372 years |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 64 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 7.1 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.9 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 28 years |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 780 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 28 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 4.2 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 4.7 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 15
Hurricane 8
Flood 3
Biological 2
Tornado 2
Snowstorm 1
Drought 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Cullman County's record, 47% 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 - 23 71.9%
of all 32 declarations
Emergency - 9 28.1%
of all 32 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 5 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 2 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 2 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
Show 8 earlier declaration years
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 2 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 32 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 32 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3618 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Hurricane | 2024-09-26 |
| 3545 | HURRICANE SALLY | EM | Hurricane | 2020-09-14 |
| 4555 | SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 2020-07-10 |
| 4546 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2020-05-21 |
| 4503 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-29 |
| 3472 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4362 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2018-04-26 |
| 3389 | HURRICANE IRMA | EM | Hurricane | 2017-09-11 |
| 4251 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-01-21 |
| 1971 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-04-28 |
| 3319 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | EM | Severe Storm | 2011-04-27 |
| 1836 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-05-08 |
| 3292 | HURRICANE GUSTAV | EM | Hurricane | 2008-08-30 |
| 3237 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1605 | HURRICANE KATRINA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-08-29 |
| 1549 | HURRICANE IVAN | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-15 |
| 1466 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-05-12 |
| 1442 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-11-14 |
| 1261 | RIV-SEVERE WINTER WX 12/23/98 | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-01-15 |
| 1214 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-04-09 |
Show 12 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1104 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, ICE AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-02-23 |
| 1070 | HURRICANE OPAL | DR | Hurricane | 1995-10-04 |
| 1047 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1995-04-21 |
| 1013 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, FREEZING, FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-03-03 |
| 3096 | SEVERE SNOWFALL, WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-15 |
| 890 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1991-01-04 |
| 856 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-02-17 |
| 3045 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-07-20 |
| 458 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-03-14 |
| 422 | TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1974-04-04 |
| 388 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-05-29 |
| 369 | TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 1973-03-27 |
Storm Events in Alabama
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Cullman County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 7,827 | 16 | 115 | $51.7M |
| Hail | 1,349 | 0 | 0 | $5.0K |
| Flash Flood | 1,047 | 17 | 7 | $12.8M |
| Tornado | 896 | 57 | 343 | $49.7M |
| Drought | 857 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
30
Total Paid
$563.6K
Avg Per Claim
$18.8K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 81.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$34.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Strong Wind Relatively High
Cold Wave Relatively High
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively High
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Hurricane Relatively Low
Wildfire Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Hail Relatively 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: Strong Wind
Strong Wind covers damaging non-thunderstorm, non-tornadic wind, the kind produced by steep pressure gradients and downslope events. It is a broad, frequent, low-drama hazard: roofs, signage, power lines and high-profile vehicles, spread across a wide area rather than concentrated on a path.
For Cullman County the two measures on this page point the same way: Strong Wind is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively High), and Severe Storm 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
Cullman County's closest FEMA peer: San Jacinto County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Cullman County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Cullman County shows 32 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Cullman County: 23 of 32 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Cullman County: NRI composite 81.9 (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 Cullman County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Cullman 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: 81.9 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 32. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 32 FEMA declarations, Cullman 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 Cullman County?
The most common disaster type in Cullman County is Severe Storm, with 15 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (8), Flood (3), Biological (2).
How does Cullman County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Alabama average?
FEMA lists 32 declaration records for Cullman County. That is 24% above the Alabama county mean of 25.8. Its count is also 54% 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 Cullman County received?
Cullman County has received 23 major disaster declarations, representing 72% of all 32 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Cullman County filed?
Cullman County has 30 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $563.6K in payments, with an average of $18.8K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Cullman County?
No. In Cullman County, Strong Wind has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $14.9M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Cullman County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Cullman County was 2020, with 5 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Cullman County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Cullman County, Alabama has an overall risk score of 81.9 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively High; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $34.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Cullman County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Cullman County as of the latest release is Strong Wind (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Cold Wave (Relatively High) and Tornado (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts strong wind here at an average of 5.1 times per year, drawn from 192 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 Cullman County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Alabama profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events