FEMA Records
19
Below median
Georgia · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Decatur County, GA
19 FEMA disaster declarations (1966-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 19
- FEMA declarations
- 12
- Major disasters
- 76
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Decatur 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 in the riskiest 24%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 24%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 19
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 204
- 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 13087 · Decatur County 19 declarations · rank 1834/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 19
- MAJOR-MID 63%
- RANK-LOWER #1,834
- PHOTO-FINISH Bartow
- NRI-LOW 76
- 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
Decatur County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Decatur County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Bartow · near 19
Bartow · near
19 declarations
- Decatur · this county 19
Decatur · 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 Decatur County carries 19 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1834 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Decatur County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Decatur County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Decatur 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
Decatur County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Decatur County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $11.2M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Hurricane 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 Decatur County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 204 paid claims, totaling $4.8M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $23.6K 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. Decatur 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 75.9/100 (Relatively Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $22.7M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very High and community resilience Very Low, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Hurricane carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 4 years here, based on 67 historical events on record.
62 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Decatur 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
16/25
12 of 19 declarations are major disasters (63%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Decatur County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Decatur 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
76
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Decatur 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 4 years |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 74 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.7 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 32 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1,361 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 5.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 923 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 1.6 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 11 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 67 years |
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 5
Tropical Storm 2
Biological 2
Tornado 1
Drought 1
Flood 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Decatur 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 - 12 63.2%
of all 19 declarations
Emergency - 7 36.8%
of all 19 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 3 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1966 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4830 | HURRICANE HELENE | DR | Hurricane | 2024-09-30 |
| 3616 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-26 |
| 3607 | HURRICANE DEBBY | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-08-05 |
| 4501 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-29 |
| 3464 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4400 | HURRICANE MICHAEL | DR | Hurricane | 2018-10-14 |
| 3406 | HURRICANE MICHAEL | EM | Hurricane | 2018-10-10 |
| 4338 | HURRICANE IRMA | DR | Hurricane | 2017-09-15 |
| 3387 | HURRICANE IRMA | EM | Hurricane | 2017-09-08 |
| 4259 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-02-26 |
| 1833 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-04-23 |
| 3218 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1560 | TROPICAL STORM FRANCES | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-24 |
| 1315 | SEVERE STORMS/TORNADOS | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-02-15 |
| 1209 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-03-11 |
| 1042 | HEAVY RAINS, TORNADOS, FLOODING, HIGH WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-10-19 |
| 1033 | TORNADOES, FLOODING TORRENTIAL RAIN(TROP STORM ALBERTO) | DR | Tornado | 1994-07-07 |
| 3044 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-07-20 |
| 214 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1966-03-14 |
Storm Events in Georgia
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Decatur 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
204
Total Paid
$4.8M
Avg Per Claim
$23.6K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 75.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$22.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hurricane Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively High
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Ice Storm 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: Hurricane
Hurricane exposure in the model bundles the three ways a tropical system does harm, which arrive on different timescales and are insured differently: wind, storm surge on the coast, and rainfall flooding that can reach far inland well after landfall.
For Decatur County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hurricane is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Moderate), and Hurricane declarations also lead its federal record. Where the model and the declaration history agree, the reading is comparatively straightforward, the hazard is both expected and repeatedly realised.
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
Decatur County's closest FEMA peer: Otsego County, NY
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Decatur County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Decatur County: NRI composite 75.9 (Relatively Low).
Similar Major-disaster share
Decatur County: 12 of 19 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Decatur County shows 19 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
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 Decatur County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Decatur 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: 75.9 (Relatively 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
Understanding disaster data
Decatur County's NFIP claims file (204 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 Decatur County?
The most common disaster type in Decatur County is Hurricane, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (5), Tropical Storm (2), Biological (2).
How does Decatur County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Georgia average?
FEMA lists 19 declaration records for Decatur 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 Decatur County received?
Decatur County has received 12 major disaster declarations, representing 63% of all 19 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Decatur County filed?
Decatur County has 204 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $4.8M in payments, with an average of $23.6K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Decatur County?
No. In Decatur County, Hurricane has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $11.2M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Decatur County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Decatur County was 2024, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1966 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Decatur County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Decatur County, Georgia has an overall risk score of 75.9 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very High; on community resilience, Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $22.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Decatur County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Decatur County as of the latest release is Hurricane (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Lightning (Relatively High) and Tornado (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hurricane here at roughly once every 4 years, drawn from 67 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 Decatur County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Georgia profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events