FEMA Records
27
High volume
Alabama · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Dallas County, AL
27 FEMA disaster declarations (1975-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 27
- FEMA declarations
- 17
- Major disasters
- 71
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Dallas County. Its 27 FEMA declarations are 5% above the Alabama county mean and exceed the count for 78% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 29%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 29%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 27
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 196
- 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.
How does Dallas County compare?
Dallas County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
27 Top 22% higher than 78% 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 · 2026-08-03
Dallas County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Alabama county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Dallas County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $10.2M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), while Lightning 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 Dallas County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 196 paid claims, totaling $2.0M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $10.0K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Dallas County's 27 federal records stand 5% 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 70.8/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $18.5M in annualized losses), and a Very High social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively Moderate community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Lightning stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 70 times per year here, based on 146,789 historical events on record.
Declaration frequency
The FEMA register is busy by both local and national comparisons. It contains 27 entries for Dallas County, including 17 Major Disaster records, 5% above the Alabama county mean. Across the 49-year span, that works out to 0.6 declarations a year. Hurricane leads the file with 11 entries. Declaration type records the federal action taken, not every assistance program approved.
64 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Dallas 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) High
20/30
27 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.3x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
13/25
27 declarations (1.0x state county average of 26)
Major Disaster Share High
16/25
17 of 27 declarations are major disasters (63%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Dallas County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Alabama Avg
+5%
State avg: 25.8
vs. National Avg
+30%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.6
Over 49 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Dallas 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
63%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
71
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Dallas 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 70 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 10 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 442 years |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 12 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 25 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 2,035 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 2.1 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 1.3 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 11
Severe Storm 10
Biological 2
Flood 2
Snowstorm 1
Drought 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Dallas County's federal record, 41% 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 - 17 63.0%
of all 27 declarations
Emergency - 10 37.0%
of all 27 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 4 | |
| 2018 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
Show 5 earlier declaration years
| 1990 | 2 | |
| 1984 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 27 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 27 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 |
| 4684 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-01-15 |
| 4573 | HURRICANE ZETA | DR | Hurricane | 2020-12-10 |
| 3545 | HURRICANE SALLY | EM | Hurricane | 2020-09-14 |
| 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 |
| 4349 | HURRICANE NATE | DR | Hurricane | 2017-11-16 |
| 3394 | HURRICANE NATE | EM | Hurricane | 2017-10-08 |
| 3389 | HURRICANE IRMA | EM | Hurricane | 2017-09-11 |
| 4082 | HURRICANE ISAAC | DR | Hurricane | 2012-09-21 |
| 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 |
| 1835 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, TORNADOES & STRAIGHT-LINE | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-04-28 |
| 3292 | HURRICANE GUSTAV | EM | Hurricane | 2008-08-30 |
| 1687 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-03-03 |
| 3237 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1593 | HURRICANE DENNIS | DR | Hurricane | 2005-07-10 |
| 1549 | HURRICANE IVAN | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-15 |
| 1108 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1996-03-20 |
Show 7 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3096 | SEVERE SNOWFALL, WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-15 |
| 861 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-03-21 |
| 856 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-02-17 |
| 695 | SEVERE STORMS,FLOODING AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1983-12-13 |
| 578 | STORMS, WIND, FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1979-04-18 |
| 3045 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-07-20 |
| 458 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-03-14 |
Storm Events in Alabama
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Dallas 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 NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
196
Total Paid
$2.0M
Avg Per Claim
$10.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 70.8/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$18.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Lightning Relatively High
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Hurricane Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Landslide Very Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Hail Relatively Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) Ratings reflect relative scores among all US counties. Data: hazards.fema.gov/nri
The model's sharpest exposure here: Lightning
Lightning is modeled as a high-frequency, low-per-event hazard: strike counts are large, but each strike affects a very small area. Its aggregate cost accumulates through structure fires, electrical and electronic damage, and it is one of the few hazards whose risk is essentially continuous through the season rather than episodic.
Worth noting for Dallas County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Lightning carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively 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
Dallas County's closest FEMA peer: Navarro County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Dallas County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Dallas County shows 27 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Dallas County: 17 of 27 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Dallas County: NRI composite 70.8 (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 Dallas County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Dallas County's NFIP claims file (196 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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Dallas County?
The most common disaster type in Dallas County is Hurricane, with 11 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (10), Biological (2), Flood (2).
How does Dallas County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Alabama average?
FEMA lists 27 declaration records for Dallas County. That is 5% above the Alabama county mean of 25.8. Its count is also 30% 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 Dallas County received?
Dallas County has received 17 major disaster declarations, representing 63% of all 27 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Dallas County filed?
Dallas County has 196 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $2.0M in payments, with an average of $10.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Dallas County?
No. In Dallas County, Lightning has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $10.2M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Dallas County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Dallas County was 2020, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1975 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Dallas County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Dallas County, Alabama has an overall risk score of 70.8 out of 100 (Relatively Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very High and community resilience is Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $18.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Dallas County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Dallas County as of the latest release is Lightning (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Tornado (Relatively Moderate) and Heat Wave (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts lightning here at an average of 70 times per year, drawn from 146,789 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.
What this means for Dallas County
Dallas County, AL has 27 federal declaration records, 5% more than the Alabama county mean of 26; its history sits in PlainHazard's high activity band.
- Within this above-state-average declaration file, major disaster leads with 17 of 27 records; the category describes past federal action, not the next likely hazard. Alabama overview
- The state benchmark and national rank point the same way: this count tops the Alabama mean and the totals for 78% of 3,266 U.S. counties. Most-disaster rankings
- Use the data guide to separate this mid-volume insurance-claims file from declaration counts and modeled NRI risk. Disaster-data guide
An above-average declaration count records past federal responses; it does not predict the next event. Current warnings come from the National Weather Service and local emergency officials.
PlainHazard derives this profile from FEMA's Disaster Declarations Summaries and National Risk Index data. The declaration comparison covers 3,266 U.S. counties and county equivalents in this database, refreshed as of 2026-08-03. Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
All federal data sources used on this page
- FEMA OpenFEMA, Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 - all federally-declared disasters for this county. fema.gov/openfema/disaster-declarations
- FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) - per-county per-hazard risk ratings and expected annual loss. hazards.fema.gov/nri
- NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database - state-level storm/severe-weather event records, 2015-2025. ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainHazard Editorial
Verify with FEMA → · Verify with FEMA NRI → · Verify with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.