FEMA Records
16
Below median
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Dawson County, TX
16 FEMA disaster declarations (1992-2021), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 16
- FEMA declarations
- 9
- Major disasters
- 39
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Dawson County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 16 declarations, more than 27% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 23% below the Texas county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 39%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 39%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 16
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 10
- 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 48115 · Dawson County 16 declarations · rank 2332/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 16
- MAJOR-MID 56%
- RANK-LOWER #2,332
- PHOTO-FINISH Greene
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-BELOW -23%
Nearest declaration peer: Greene, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Texas state profile
Dawson County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Dawson County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Dawson · this county 16
Dawson · this county
16 declarations
- Frontier · near 16
Frontier · near
16 declarations
- Greene · near 16
Greene · near
16 declarations
- Terrell · near 16
Terrell · near
16 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Dawson County carries 16 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2332 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Dawson County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Dawson County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Dawson County
16 27th percentile higher than 27% 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 Cold Wave (about $1.8M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Drought 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 Dawson County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 38.7/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $8.4M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very High) and community resilience (Relatively Low) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. 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 79 modeled event-days per year here, based on 2,044 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 10 claims and $142.6K 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.
Start with the state benchmark: a Texas county averages 20.9 federal declaration records, while Dawson County has 16. The gap is 23% 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.
51 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Dawson 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
12/30
16 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25
16 declarations (0.8x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
9 of 16 declarations are major disasters (56%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 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
56%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
39
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drought | Relatively High | 79 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.1 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 388 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 6.7 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 110 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 4.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 4,505 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 47 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 12 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 4
Hurricane 4
Severe Ice Storm 3
Biological 2
Severe Storm 2
Drought 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Dawson County's federal record, 25% 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 - 9 56.3%
of all 16 declarations
Emergency - 7 43.8%
of all 16 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 16 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 16 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 |
| 1999 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2011-07-01 |
| 1931 | HURRICANE ALEX | DR | Hurricane | 2010-08-03 |
| 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 |
| 1356 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2001-01-08 |
| 3142 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARDS | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
| 1239 | TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-26 |
| 3113 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Drought | 1993-09-10 |
| 960 | EXCESSIVE RAIN & HAIL | DR | Severe Storm | 1992-09-09 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Dawson 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
10
Total Paid
$142.6K
Avg Per Claim
$14.3K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 38.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$8.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively High
Hail Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Very Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Lightning 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 Dawson 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 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: Pulaski County, IN
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 16 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Dawson County: 9 of 16 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Dawson County: NRI composite 38.7 (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: 38.7 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 16. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 16 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 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Fire (4), Severe Ice Storm (3), Biological (2).
How does Dawson County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
The typical Texas county has 20.9 FEMA declaration records; Dawson County has 16, or 23% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 23% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Dawson County received?
Dawson County has received 9 major disaster declarations, representing 56% of all 16 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Dawson County filed?
Dawson County has 10 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $142.6K in payments, with an average of $14.3K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Dawson County?
No. In Dawson County, Drought has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Cold Wave leads Expected Annual Loss at about $1.8M. 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 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1992 to 2021.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Dawson County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Dawson County, Texas has an overall risk score of 38.7 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very High, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $8.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Dawson County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Dawson County is Drought (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively Moderate) and Strong Wind (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 79 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 2,044 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 · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events