FEMA Records
19
Below median
Georgia · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Dawson County, GA
19 FEMA disaster declarations (1974-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 19
- FEMA declarations
- 11
- Major disasters
- 22
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Dawson County. Its 19 FEMA declarations are 9% above the Georgia county mean and exceed the count for 41% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 22%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 22%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 19
- 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 13085 · Dawson County 19 declarations · rank 1771/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 19
- MAJOR-MID 58%
- RANK-LOWER #1,771
- PHOTO-FINISH Bartow
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-ABOVE +9%
Nearest declaration peer: Bartow, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Georgia state profile
Dawson County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Dawson County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Bartow · near 19
Bartow · near
19 declarations
- Dawson · this county 19
Dawson · this county
19 declarations
- Union · near 19
Union · near
19 declarations
- Warren · near 19
Warren · near
19 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Dawson County carries 19 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1771 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Dawson County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Dawson County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Dawson County
19 41st percentile higher than 41% 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
Dawson County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Dawson County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $4.8M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Lightning 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 Dawson County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 21.9/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $9.3M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Very Low social-vulnerability score and Relatively High community-resilience score. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Lightning carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 60 times per year here, based on 48,671 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 $4.1K 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. Dawson County's 19 federal records stand 9% above the Georgia county mean of 17.4. 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.
62 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Dawson 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
14/30
19 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
14/25
19 declarations (1.1x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
11 of 19 declarations are major disasters (58%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
9 different disaster types declared in Dawson County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Dawson 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
58%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
22
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Dawson 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 Moderate | an average of 60 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 467 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 2.2 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 3.1 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 38 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 50 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 5.2 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,021 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 6.5 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.7 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 7
Severe Storm 3
Biological 2
Severe Ice Storm 2
Winter Storm 1
Tropical Storm 1
Snowstorm 1
Drought 1
Tornado 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Dawson County's federal record, 37% 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 - 11 57.9%
of all 19 declarations
Emergency - 8 42.1%
of all 19 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 2 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1974 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 19 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 19 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 |
| 4830 | HURRICANE HELENE | DR | Hurricane | 2024-09-30 |
| 3616 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-26 |
| 4579 | TROPICAL STORM ZETA | DR | Hurricane | 2021-01-12 |
| 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 |
| 4215 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2015-04-20 |
| 3368 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2014-02-11 |
| 1858 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-09-24 |
| 3218 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1554 | HURRICANE IVAN | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-18 |
| 1311 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-01-28 |
| 1209 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-03-11 |
| 1071 | HURRICANE OPAL | DR | Hurricane | 1995-10-10 |
| 3097 | SEVERE SNOWFALL, WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-15 |
| 3044 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-07-20 |
| 425 | TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1974-04-05 |
Storm Events in Georgia
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Dawson 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
3
Total Paid
$4.1K
Avg Per Claim
$1.4K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 21.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$9.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Hail Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Heat Wave 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: 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 Dawson County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Lightning 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
Dawson County's closest FEMA peer: Harper County, OK
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Dawson County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Dawson County shows 19 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Dawson County: 11 of 19 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Dawson County: NRI composite 21.9 (Very 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 Dawson County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Dawson 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: 21.9 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 19. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 19 FEMA declarations, Dawson 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 Dawson County?
The most common disaster type in Dawson County is Hurricane, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (3), Biological (2), Severe Ice Storm (2).
How does Dawson County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Georgia average?
FEMA lists 19 declaration records for Dawson County. That is 9% above the Georgia county mean of 17.4. Its count is also 8% below 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 Dawson County received?
Dawson County has received 11 major disaster declarations, representing 58% of all 19 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Dawson County filed?
Dawson County has 3 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $4.1K in payments, with an average of $1.4K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Dawson County?
No. In Dawson County, Lightning has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $4.8M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Dawson County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Dawson County was 2017, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1974 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Dawson County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Dawson County, Georgia has an overall risk score of 21.9 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $9.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Dawson County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Dawson County is Lightning (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Landslide (Relatively Low) and Tornado (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts lightning here at an average of 60 times per year, drawn from 48,671 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 Dawson County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Georgia profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events