FEMA Records
11
Low volume
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Dallam County, TX
11 FEMA disaster declarations (1998-2021), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 11
- FEMA declarations
- 5
- Major disasters
- 51
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Dallam County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 11 declarations, more than 12% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 47% below the Texas 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
- 11
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 3
- 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 48111 · Dallam County 11 declarations · rank 2848/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 11
- MAJOR-LIGHT 45%
- RANK-LOWER #2,848
- PHOTO-FINISH Meeker
- NRI-LOW 51
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-BELOW -47%
Nearest declaration peer: Meeker, MN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Texas state profile
Dallam County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Dallam County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Dallam · this county 11
Dallam · this county
11 declarations
- Davis · near 11
Davis · near
11 declarations
- Meeker · near 11
Meeker · near
11 declarations
- Wasatch · near 11
Wasatch · near
11 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Dallam County carries 11 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2848 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Dallam County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Dallam County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Dallam County
11 12th percentile higher than 12% 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
Dallam County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Dallam County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 51.1/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Very Low (roughly $14.2M in annualized losses), and a Relatively Moderate social-vulnerability profile combined with Very Low community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Drought stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 142 modeled event-days per year here, based on 3,584 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 3 claims and $884 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 Texas county averages 20.9 federal declaration records, while Dallam County has 11. The gap is 47% 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.
39 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Dallam 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) Moderate
8/30
11 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.5x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
7/25
11 declarations (0.5x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
11/25
5 of 11 declarations are major disasters (45%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Dallam County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Dallam 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
45%
Mixed major share
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 Dallam 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drought | Relatively High | 142 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 12 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 198 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 47 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 4 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,399 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 3
Hurricane 3
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Severe Storm 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Dallam County's record, 27% of its declarations. Wildfire is the one hazard here with its own dedicated federal instrument: the Fire Management Assistance Grant, which appears in this data as an FM record. An FMAG can be authorised while a fire is still burning, on a timescale of hours, because its purpose is to reimburse the cost of fighting a fire that threatens to become a major disaster.
That distinction matters when comparing counties. An FM declaration is not a presidential major disaster declaration and does not carry the same assistance programmes, so a fire-heavy county's total is not directly comparable with a hurricane-heavy county's total unless the declaration types are separated, which is why they are listed separately on this page.
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 - 6 54.5%
of all 11 declarations
Major Disaster - 5 45.5%
of all 11 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 11 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 11 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 3284 | WILDFIRES | EM | Fire | 2008-03-14 |
| 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 |
| 3142 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARDS | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
| 1239 | TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-26 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Dallam 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 State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
3
Total Paid
$884
Avg Per Claim
$295
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 51.1/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$14.2M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively High
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Landslide 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: Drought
Drought is the slowest of the modeled hazards and the least visible: it does its damage to agriculture, water supply and soil over seasons rather than hours, so it rarely produces the kind of single-day damage that drives a disaster declaration. FEMA scores it in event-days per year rather than discrete events for exactly that reason.
Worth noting for Dallam County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively High), while the county's declaration history is led by Fire. 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
Dallam County's closest FEMA peer: Marquette County, MI
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Dallam County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Dallam County shows 11 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Dallam County: 5 of 11 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Dallam County: NRI composite 51.1 (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 Dallam County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Dallam 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: 51.1 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 11. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 11 FEMA declarations, Dallam 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 Dallam County?
The most common disaster type in Dallam County is Fire, with 3 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (3), Severe Ice Storm (2), Biological (2).
How does Dallam County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
The typical Texas county has 20.9 FEMA declaration records; Dallam County has 11, or 47% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 47% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Dallam County received?
Dallam County has received 5 major disaster declarations, representing 45% of all 11 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Dallam County filed?
Dallam County has 3 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $884 in payments, with an average of $295 per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Dallam County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Dallam County was 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1998 to 2021.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Dallam County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Dallam County, Texas has an overall risk score of 51.1 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Moderate; on community resilience, Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $14.2M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Dallam County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Dallam County is Drought (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate) and Cold Wave (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 142 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 3,584 historical events on record. FEMA derives these ratings from historical event frequency, the assets exposed, and the community's vulnerability profile.
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 Dallam County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events