FEMA Records
20
Above median
Arkansas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Drew County, AR
20 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 20
- FEMA declarations
- 14
- Major disasters
- 35
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Drew County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 20 declarations, more than 46% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 17% below the Arkansas county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 35%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 35%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 20
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 40
- 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 05043 · Drew County 20 declarations · rank 1693/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 20
- MAJOR-MID 70%
- RANK-LOWER #1,693
- PHOTO-FINISH Monona
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -17%
Nearest declaration peer: Monona, IA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Arkansas state profile
Drew County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Drew County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Cleveland · near 20
Cleveland · near
20 declarations
- Drew · this county 20
Drew · this county
20 declarations
- Monona · near 20
Monona · near
20 declarations
- Tallapoosa · near 20
Tallapoosa · near
20 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Drew County carries 20 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1693 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Drew County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Drew County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Drew County
20 46th percentile higher than 46% 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
Drew County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Drew County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 35.1/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $7.1M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very High) and community resilience (Relatively Moderate) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Earthquake, only reaches Relatively Low on FEMA's scale, none of the 18 modeled hazards stand out here. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 310 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 40 claims and $670.9K 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 Arkansas county averages 24.2 federal declaration records, while Drew County has 20. The gap is 17% 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.
62 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Drew County, AR · 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
20 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25
20 declarations (0.8x state county average of 24)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
14 of 20 declarations are major disasters (70%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Drew County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Drew 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
70%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
35
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Drew 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 310 years |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 9.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 20 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.4 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 30 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 3.2 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 63 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 3,457 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | an average of 1.6 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 3.8 times 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 7
Hurricane 3
Winter Storm 2
Biological 2
Severe Ice Storm 2
Flood 2
Tornado 1
Snowstorm 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Drew County's record, 35% 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 - 14 70.0%
of all 20 declarations
Emergency - 6 30.0%
of all 20 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 4 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 2 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 3 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 20 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 20 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3636 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 3627 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | EM | Severe Storm | 2025-04-05 |
| 4700 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Winter Storm | 2023-04-04 |
| 3541 | HURRICANE LAURA | EM | Hurricane | 2020-08-27 |
| 4556 | SEVERE STORMS AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Tornado | 2020-07-10 |
| 4518 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-03 |
| 3461 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4254 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-02-05 |
| 1872 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-02-04 |
| 1861 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-12-03 |
| 1845 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-06-16 |
| 1793 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING ASSOCIATED WITH HURRICANE GUSTAV | DR | Hurricane | 2008-09-18 |
| 3215 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-02 |
| 1363 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2001-03-13 |
| 1354 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2000-12-29 |
| 3159 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2000-12-28 |
| 1266 | AR SEVERE WEATHER 1-21-99 | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-01-23 |
| 1176 | FLOODING, SEVERE STORMS | DR | Flood | 1997-04-14 |
| 1011 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM | DR | Snowstorm | 1994-02-28 |
| 375 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-04-27 |
Storm Events in Arkansas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Drew County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 3,657 | 10 | 23 | $60.9M |
| Hail | 2,230 | 0 | 0 | $7.7M |
| Flash Flood | 1,517 | 12 | 3 | $15.9M |
| Heat | 1,222 | 2 | 325 | $0 |
| Flood | 1,152 | 9 | 0 | $40.2M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
40
Total Paid
$670.9K
Avg Per Claim
$16.8K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 35.1/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$7.1M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Earthquake Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Hail Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Winter Weather 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: Earthquake
Earthquake is the model's clearest example of a hazard with no season and no warning. Its expected loss is driven less by how often shaking occurs than by how much of the building stock predates modern seismic codes, so exposure can be high in places where nothing has happened for a long time.
Worth noting for Drew County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Earthquake carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Low), 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
Drew County's closest FEMA peer: Columbia County, PA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Drew County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Drew County shows 20 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Drew County: 14 of 20 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Drew County: NRI composite 35.1 (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 Drew County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Drew 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: 35.1 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 20. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 20 FEMA declarations, Drew 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 Drew County?
The most common disaster type in Drew County is Severe Storm, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (3), Winter Storm (2), Biological (2).
How does Drew County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Arkansas average?
The typical Arkansas county has 24.2 FEMA declaration records; Drew County has 20, or 17% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 3% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Drew County received?
Drew County has received 14 major disaster declarations, representing 70% of all 20 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Drew County filed?
Drew County has 40 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $670.9K in payments, with an average of $16.8K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Drew County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Drew County was 2020, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Drew County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Drew County, Arkansas has an overall risk score of 35.1 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very High; on community resilience, Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $7.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Drew County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Drew County as of the latest release is Earthquake (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Moderate) and Ice Storm (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts earthquake here at roughly once every 310 years. FEMA derives these ratings from historical event frequency, the assets exposed, and the community's vulnerability profile.
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 Drew County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Arkansas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events