FEMA Records
23
Above median
North Carolina · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Cumberland County, NC
23 FEMA disaster declarations (1984-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 23
- FEMA declarations
- 10
- Major disasters
- 89
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Cumberland County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 23 declarations, more than 62% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 4% below the North Carolina county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 11%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 11%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 23
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 825
- 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 37051 · Cumberland County 23 declarations · rank 1122/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 23
- MAJOR-LIGHT 43%
- RANK-LOWER #1,122
- PHOTO-FINISH Roanoke
- NRI-MID 89
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-BELOW -4%
Nearest declaration peer: Roanoke, VA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · North Carolina state profile
Cumberland County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Cumberland County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Amherst · near 23
Amherst · near
23 declarations
- Cumberland · this county 23
Cumberland · this county
23 declarations
- Roanoke · near 23
Roanoke · near
23 declarations
- Vance · near 23
Vance · near
23 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Cumberland County carries 23 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1122 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Cumberland County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Cumberland County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Cumberland County
23 Top 38% higher than 62% 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
Cumberland County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Cumberland County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $40.6M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Winter Weather carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Very 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 Cumberland County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 825 claims and $24.8M 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 $30.1K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
Start with the state benchmark: a North Carolina county averages 24.0 federal declaration records, while Cumberland County has 23. The gap is 4% 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 sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 89.5/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $90.2M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Low and community resilience Relatively Low, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Winter Weather stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 4.5 times per year here, based on 85 historical events on record.
58 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Cumberland County, NC · 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
17/30
23 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.1x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
23 declarations (1.0x state county average of 24)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
11/25
10 of 23 declarations are major disasters (43%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Cumberland County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Cumberland 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
43%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
89
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Cumberland 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Winter Weather | Very High | an average of 4.5 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 8.9 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively High | roughly once every 4 years |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 53 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively High | roughly once every 3 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.1 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 597 years |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 670 years |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 11 modeled event-days per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 15
Tropical Storm 2
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Fire 1
Severe Storm 1
Tornado 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Cumberland County's federal record, 65% 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 - 12 52.2%
of all 23 declarations
Major Disaster - 10 43.5%
of all 23 declarations
Fire Management - 1 4.3%
of all 23 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 2 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 2 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1984 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 23 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 23 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3637 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 3617 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-26 |
| 3608 | TROPICAL STORM DEBBY | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-08-06 |
| 3586 | HURRICANE IAN | EM | Hurricane | 2022-10-01 |
| 3534 | HURRICANE ISAIAS | EM | Hurricane | 2020-08-02 |
| 4487 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3471 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 3423 | HURRICANE DORIAN | EM | Hurricane | 2019-09-03 |
| 4393 | HURRICANE FLORENCE | DR | Hurricane | 2018-09-14 |
| 3401 | HURRICANE FLORENCE | EM | Hurricane | 2018-09-10 |
| 4285 | HURRICANE MATTHEW | DR | Hurricane | 2016-10-10 |
| 3380 | HURRICANE MATTHEW | EM | Hurricane | 2016-10-07 |
| 2936 | SIMMONS ROAD FIRE | FM | Fire | 2011-07-04 |
| 1969 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-04-19 |
| 3254 | HURRICANE OPHELIA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-14 |
| 3222 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1546 | TROPICAL STORM FRANCES | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-10 |
| 1490 | HURRICANE ISABEL | DR | Hurricane | 2003-09-18 |
| 1292 | HURRICANE FLOYD MAJOR DISASTER DECLARATIONS | DR | Hurricane | 1999-09-16 |
| 3146 | HURRICANE FLOYD EMERGENCY DECLARATIONS | EM | Hurricane | 1999-09-15 |
Show 3 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1240 | HURRICANE BONNIE | DR | Hurricane | 1998-08-27 |
| 1134 | HURRICANE FRAN | DR | Hurricane | 1996-09-06 |
| 699 | SEVERE STORMS & TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1984-03-30 |
Storm Events in North Carolina
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Cumberland County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 7,123 | 11 | 60 | $62.9M |
| Flash Flood | 1,881 | 105 | 6 | $2.3B |
| Hail | 1,623 | 0 | 0 | $122.5M |
| Winter Weather | 1,272 | 6 | 2 | $425.0K |
| Winter Storm | 743 | 7 | 0 | $10.7M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
825
Total Paid
$24.8M
Avg Per Claim
$30.1K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 89.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$90.2M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Winter Weather Very High
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Relatively High
Lightning Relatively High
Tornado Relatively High
Ice Storm Relatively High
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Wildfire Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Landslide Very Low
Drought Relatively Low
Coastal Flooding 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: Winter Weather
Winter Weather in the model means the accumulation of snow and cold that disrupts rather than destroys: road closures, roof loads, burst pipes and lost heating. Its costs land heavily on transport and on households least able to absorb an interruption.
Worth noting for Cumberland County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Winter Weather carries the highest modeled rating (Very High), 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
Cumberland County's closest FEMA peer: Stephens County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Cumberland County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Cumberland County shows 23 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Cumberland County: 10 of 23 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Cumberland County: NRI composite 89.5 (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 Cumberland County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Cumberland 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: 89.5 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 23. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Cumberland County's NFIP claims file (825 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 Cumberland County?
The most common disaster type in Cumberland County is Hurricane, with 15 declarations. Other disaster types include Tropical Storm (2), Biological (2), Winter Storm (1).
How does Cumberland County's FEMA declaration record compare with the North Carolina average?
The typical North Carolina county has 24.0 FEMA declaration records; Cumberland County has 23, or 4% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 11% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Cumberland County received?
Cumberland County has received 10 major disaster declarations, representing 43% of all 23 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Cumberland County filed?
Cumberland County has 825 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $24.8M in payments, with an average of $30.1K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Cumberland County?
No. In Cumberland County, Winter Weather has the highest National Risk Index rating (Very High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $40.6M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Cumberland County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Cumberland County was 2020, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1984 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Cumberland County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Cumberland County, North Carolina has an overall risk score of 89.5 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $90.2M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Cumberland County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Cumberland County is Winter Weather (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Heat Wave (Relatively Moderate) and Hurricane (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts winter weather here at an average of 4.5 times per year, drawn from 85 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 Cumberland County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · North Carolina profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events