FEMA Records
21
Above median
Virginia · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Dickenson County, VA
21 FEMA disaster declarations (1977-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 21
- FEMA declarations
- 13
- Major disasters
- 18
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Dickenson County. Its 21 FEMA declarations are 3% above the Virginia county mean and exceed the count for 52% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 18%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 18%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 21
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 118
- 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 51051 · Dickenson County 21 declarations · rank 1491/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 21
- MAJOR-MID 62%
- RANK-LOWER #1,491
- PHOTO-FINISH Montgomery
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-ABOVE +3%
Nearest declaration peer: Montgomery, IN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Virginia state profile
Dickenson County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Dickenson County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Atascosa · near 21
Atascosa · near
21 declarations
- Dickenson · this county 21
Dickenson · this county
21 declarations
- Mason · near 21
Mason · near
21 declarations
- Montgomery · near 21
Montgomery · near
21 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Dickenson County carries 21 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1491 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Dickenson County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Dickenson County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Dickenson County
21 Top 48% higher than 52% 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
Dickenson County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Dickenson County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $3.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Landslide 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 Dickenson County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 118 paid claims, totaling $513.6K. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $4.4K 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. Dickenson County's 21 federal records stand 3% above the Virginia county mean of 20.4. 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's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 17.9/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $5.0M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Relatively High social-vulnerability score and Very Low community-resilience score. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Landslide carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 1.1 times per year here.
63 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Dickenson County, VA · 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
15/30
21 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
13/25
21 declarations (1.0x state county average of 20)
Major Disaster Share High
15/25
13 of 21 declarations are major disasters (62%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Dickenson County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Dickenson 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
62%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
18
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Dickenson 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 82 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.3 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 43 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 642 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 11 times per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 50 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 3 times per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 25 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Drought | No Rating | 8 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
Severe Storm 6
Snowstorm 4
Hurricane 3
Tropical Storm 2
Biological 2
Flood 2
Winter Storm 1
Fire 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Dickenson County's record, 29% of its declarations. In FEMA's vocabulary this covers convective weather: thunderstorm straight-line winds, large hail, and the multi-day outbreaks that often carry embedded tornadoes. Activity is heaviest in spring and summer, though the season varies by region.
These events behave differently from a hurricane on paper. Damage tends to be distributed along a storm track rather than concentrated on a coastline, and a declaration typically follows an outbreak that crossed several counties over a few days, not a single point of impact. Because the qualifying threshold is the cost of uninsured public and individual losses rather than storm intensity, two similar storms can produce a declaration in one year and none in another.
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 - 13 61.9%
of all 21 declarations
Emergency - 7 33.3%
of all 21 declarations
Fire Management - 1 4.8%
of all 21 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2025 | 2 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 2 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
Show 3 earlier declaration years
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1984 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 21 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 21 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3631 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-23 |
| 4863 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2025-04-04 |
| 4831 | TROPICAL STORM HELENE | DR | Tropical Storm | 2024-10-01 |
| 3621 | POST-TROPICAL CYCLONE HELENE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-29 |
| 4512 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-02 |
| 3448 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 3403 | HURRICANE FLORENCE | EM | Hurricane | 2018-09-11 |
| 3359 | HURRICANE SANDY | EM | Hurricane | 2012-10-29 |
| 1874 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2010-02-16 |
| 1655 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-07-13 |
| 3240 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-12 |
| 1458 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, RECORD/NEAR RECORD SNOWFALL, HEAVY RAIN,FLOODIND, AND MUDSLIDE | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-03-27 |
| 1406 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-04-02 |
| 2390 | VA - FAR SOUTHWEST FIRE COMPLEX - 11/16/2001 | FM | Fire | 2001-11-16 |
| 1386 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2001-07-12 |
| 1318 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-02-28 |
| 1086 | BLIZZARD OF 96 (SEVERE SNOW STORM) | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-13 |
| 1014 | SEVERE ICE STORMS, FLOODING | DR | Snowstorm | 1994-03-10 |
| 3112 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-25 |
| 707 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1984-05-23 |
Show 1 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 530 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1977-04-07 |
Storm Events in Virginia
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Dickenson County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 8,940 | 13 | 31 | $123.1M |
| Flood | 2,300 | 4 | 0 | $85.1M |
| Winter Weather | 2,049 | 6 | 32 | $902.0K |
| Flash Flood | 1,942 | 13 | 4 | $244.2M |
| Heavy Rain | 1,566 | 0 | 0 | $2.5M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
118
Total Paid
$513.6K
Avg Per Claim
$4.4K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 17.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$5.0M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Avalanche Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Very Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Hail Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Drought 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: Landslide
Landslide risk is a function of slope, soil and water, so it is usually a SECOND-ORDER hazard: it is triggered by the rainfall, snowmelt, wildfire burn scars or seismic shaking that came first. That is why a county can carry high landslide exposure whose realized damage is recorded under a flood or storm declaration instead.
Worth noting for Dickenson County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Landslide carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), while the county's declaration history is led by Severe Storm. 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
Dickenson County's closest FEMA peer: Titus County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Dickenson County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Dickenson County shows 21 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Dickenson County: 13 of 21 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Dickenson County: NRI composite 17.9 (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 Dickenson County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Dickenson 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: 17.9 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 21. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Dickenson County's NFIP claims file (118 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 Dickenson County?
The most common disaster type in Dickenson County is Severe Storm, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Snowstorm (4), Hurricane (3), Tropical Storm (2).
How does Dickenson County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Virginia average?
FEMA lists 21 declaration records for Dickenson County. That is 3% above the Virginia county mean of 20.4. Its count is also 1% 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 Dickenson County received?
Dickenson County has received 13 major disaster declarations, representing 62% of all 21 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Dickenson County filed?
Dickenson County has 118 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $513.6K in payments, with an average of $4.4K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Dickenson County?
No. In Dickenson County, Landslide has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $3.3M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Dickenson County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Dickenson County was 2002, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1977 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Dickenson County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Dickenson County, Virginia has an overall risk score of 17.9 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively High, while community resilience comes in at Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $5.0M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Dickenson County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Dickenson County is Landslide (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Relatively Low) and Avalanche (Very Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts landslide here at an average of 1.1 times per year. 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 Dickenson County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Virginia profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events