FEMA Records
38
Very high volume
Florida · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
DeSoto County, FL
38 FEMA disaster declarations (1977-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 38
- FEMA declarations
- 22
- Major disasters
- 82
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
DeSoto County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 38 declarations, more than 95% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 6% below the Florida county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 18%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 18%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 38
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 453
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Fire Management Assistance (FM) records, which are not presidential disaster declarations, alongside Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 12027 · DeSoto County 38 declarations · rank 150/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 38
- MAJOR-MID 58%
- RANK-UPPER #150
- PHOTO-FINISH LaSalle
- NRI-MID 82
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-BELOW -6%
Nearest declaration peer: LaSalle, LA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Florida state profile
DeSoto County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among DeSoto County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- DeSoto · this county
DeSoto · this county
38 declarations
- Hendry · near
Hendry · near
38 declarations
- LaSalle · near
LaSalle · near
38 declarations
- Marion · near
Marion · near
38 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows DeSoto County carries 38 FEMA declaration records, ranked 150 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where DeSoto County ranks in the national declaration registry
DeSoto County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · DeSoto County
38 Top 5% higher than 95% 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
DeSoto County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does DeSoto County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 453 paid claims, totaling $17.1M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $37.7K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Florida county averages 40.4 federal declaration records, while DeSoto County has 38. The gap is 6% 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 81.6/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $26.3M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very High and community resilience Very Low, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Hurricane stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 4 years here, based on 73 historical events on record.
74 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
DeSoto County, FL · 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) Very High
28/30
38 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
38 declarations (0.9x state county average of 40)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
22 of 38 declarations are major disasters (58%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in DeSoto County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - DeSoto 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
82
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike DeSoto 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 High | roughly once every 4 years |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 98 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 150 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.6 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 18 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 3.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Coastal Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 83 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 1.3 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 3,802 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 15 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 17
Tropical Storm 4
Severe Storm 4
Fire 4
Freezing 4
Biological 2
Flood 2
Coastal Storm 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on DeSoto County's federal record, 45% 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 - 22 57.9%
of all 38 declarations
Emergency - 14 36.8%
of all 38 declarations
Fire Management - 2 5.3%
of all 38 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2 | |
| 2024 | 3 | |
| 2023 | 4 | |
| 2022 | 2 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 3 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 3 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
Show 7 earlier declaration years
| 1999 | 2 | |
| 1998 | 3 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1985 | 1 | |
| 1982 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 38 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 38 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4834 | HURRICANE MILTON | DR | Hurricane | 2024-10-11 |
| 3622 | HURRICANE MILTON | EM | Hurricane | 2024-10-07 |
| 4828 | HURRICANE HELENE | DR | Hurricane | 2024-09-28 |
| 4806 | HURRICANE DEBBY | DR | Tropical Storm | 2024-08-10 |
| 3605 | TROPICAL STORM DEBBY | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-08-03 |
| 4734 | HURRICANE IDALIA | DR | Hurricane | 2023-08-31 |
| 3596 | TROPICAL STORM IDALIA | EM | Tropical Storm | 2023-08-28 |
| 4680 | HURRICANE NICOLE | DR | Hurricane | 2022-12-13 |
| 3587 | TROPICAL STORM NICOLE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2022-11-08 |
| 4673 | HURRICANE IAN | DR | Hurricane | 2022-09-29 |
| 3584 | TROPICAL STORM IAN | EM | Hurricane | 2022-09-24 |
| 3561 | TROPICAL STORM ELSA | EM | Severe Storm | 2021-07-04 |
| 4486 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3432 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 3419 | HURRICANE DORIAN | EM | Hurricane | 2019-08-30 |
| 4337 | HURRICANE IRMA | DR | Hurricane | 2017-09-10 |
| 3385 | HURRICANE IRMA | EM | Hurricane | 2017-09-05 |
| 3288 | TROPICAL STORM FAY | EM | Severe Storm | 2008-08-21 |
| 1609 | HURRICANE WILMA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-10-24 |
| 3220 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
Show 18 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1561 | HURRICANE JEANNE | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-26 |
| 1545 | HURRICANE FRANCES | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-04 |
| 1539 | TROPICAL STORM BONNIE AND HURRICANE CHARLEY | DR | Hurricane | 2004-08-13 |
| 1481 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-07-29 |
| 1393 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING ASSOCIATED WITH TROPICAL STORM GABRIELLE | DR | Coastal Storm | 2001-09-28 |
| 2358 | FL - MYAKKA COMPLEX FIRE | FM | Fire | 2001-04-18 |
| 1359 | SEVERE FREEZE | DR | Freezing | 2001-02-05 |
| 3150 | TROPICAL STORM IRENE - FLORIDA | EM | Hurricane | 1999-10-15 |
| 3139 | FL-FIRES 04/15/99 | EM | Fire | 1999-04-27 |
| 2260 | FL-FIRES 04/13/99 | FM | Fire | 1999-04-23 |
| 3131 | HURRICANE GRORGES | EM | Hurricane | 1998-09-25 |
| 1223 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | DR | Fire | 1998-06-18 |
| 1195 | SEVERE STORMS, HIGH WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-01-06 |
| 952 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1992-08-14 |
| 851 | SEVERE FREEZE | DR | Freezing | 1990-01-15 |
| 732 | SEVERE FREEZE | DR | Freezing | 1985-03-18 |
| 664 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1982-07-07 |
| 526 | SEVERE WINTER WEATHER | DR | Freezing | 1977-01-31 |
Storm Events in Florida
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to DeSoto County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 5,243 | 17 | 45 | $24.8M |
| Hail | 1,012 | 0 | 0 | $564.6K |
| Heavy Rain | 865 | 2 | 3 | $200.0K |
| Flood | 826 | 9 | 0 | $2.0B |
| Tropical Storm | 767 | 92 | 6 | $4.9B |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
453
Total Paid
$17.1M
Avg Per Claim
$37.7K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 81.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$26.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hurricane Relatively High
Lightning Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Coastal Flooding Very Low
Hail Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Winter Weather No Rating
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 DeSoto County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hurricane is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively High), 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
DeSoto County's closest FEMA peer: Norfolk County, MA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for DeSoto County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
DeSoto County shows 38 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
DeSoto County: 22 of 38 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
DeSoto County: NRI composite 81.6 (Relatively Moderate).
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 DeSoto County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for DeSoto 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: 81.6 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 38. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
DeSoto County's NFIP claims file (453 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 DeSoto County?
The most common disaster type in DeSoto County is Hurricane, with 17 declarations. Other disaster types include Tropical Storm (4), Severe Storm (4), Fire (4).
How does DeSoto County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Florida average?
The typical Florida county has 40.4 FEMA declaration records; DeSoto County has 38, or 6% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 83% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has DeSoto County received?
DeSoto County has received 22 major disaster declarations, representing 58% of all 38 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has DeSoto County filed?
DeSoto County has 453 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $17.1M in payments, with an average of $37.7K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in DeSoto County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in DeSoto County was 2023, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1977 to 2025.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for DeSoto County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, DeSoto County, Florida has an overall risk score of 81.6 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very High and community resilience is Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $26.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to DeSoto County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in DeSoto County is Hurricane (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Lightning (Relatively High) and Wildfire (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hurricane here at roughly once every 4 years, drawn from 73 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 DeSoto County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Florida profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events