FEMA Records
24
Above median
Tennessee · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
24 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Dyer County. Its 24 FEMA declarations are 12% above the Tennessee county mean and exceed the count for 66% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 13%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
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 47045 · Dyer County 24 declarations · rank 995/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
Nearest declaration peer: Eddy, ND (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Tennessee state profile
FEMA declaration records among Dyer County and nearest peers by total count
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
Deuel · near
24 declarations
Dyer · this county
24 declarations
Eddy · near
24 declarations
Wichita · near
24 declarations
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Dyer County carries 24 FEMA declaration records, ranked 995 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Dyer County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Dyer County
24 Top 34% higher than 66% 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
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 297 paid claims, totaling $7.3M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $24.6K 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. Dyer County's 24 federal records stand 12% above the Tennessee county mean of 21.4. 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.
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 86.6/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $47.3M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively High and community resilience Relatively Moderate, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Earthquake carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 62 years here.
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Dyer County, TN · 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
24 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.2x national county average)
24 declarations (1.1x state county average of 21)
18 of 24 declarations are major disasters (75%)
7 different disaster types declared in Dyer County
Each axis: NRI risk rating (Very Low-Very High) on a 0-100 scale. Rounder = broad exposure; spiky = one or two hazards dominate.
FEMA Records
24
Above median
Major Disaster share
75%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
87
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
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 Moderate | roughly once every 62 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | an average of 1.3 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 17 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 7.2 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.6 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 13 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 58 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.1 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 47 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 3.1 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 9,526 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Dyer County's record, 42% 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.
FEMA categorizes declarations as Major Disasters (DR), Emergencies (EM), or Fire Management Assistance (FM).
of all 24 declarations
of all 24 declarations
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | |
| 2025 | 2 | |
| 2022 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
How the 24 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 24 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4898 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Winter Storm | 2026-02-06 |
| 3635 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4878 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2025-06-19 |
| 3625 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | EM | Severe Storm | 2025-04-02 |
| 4637 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 2022-01-14 |
| 3576 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | EM | Tornado | 2021-12-13 |
| 4550 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2020-07-09 |
| 4514 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-02 |
| 3473 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4427 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2019-04-17 |
| 1979 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-05-09 |
| 3321 | FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2011-05-04 |
| 1909 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-05-04 |
| 1821 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2009-02-17 |
| 1634 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-04-05 |
| 3217 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1464 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-05-08 |
| 1215 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-04-20 |
| 1167 | HEAVY RAINS, TORNADOES, FLOODING, HAIL, HIGH WINDS | DR | Tornado | 1997-03-07 |
| 1010 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM,FLASH FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-02-28 |
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 889 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1991-01-04 |
| 585 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1979-05-07 |
| 459 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-03-22 |
| 382 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-05-11 |
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Dyer County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 6,558 | 22 | 58 | $107.0M |
| Hail | 1,690 | 0 | 0 | $545.5K |
| Heat | 1,343 | 9 | 15 | $0 |
| Flash Flood | 1,264 | 55 | 3 | $334.4M |
| Winter Weather | 1,088 | 5 | 0 | $261.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
Total Claims
297
Total Paid
$7.3M
Avg Per Claim
$24.6K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 86.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$47.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) Ratings reflect relative scores among all US counties. Data: hazards.fema.gov/nri
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 Dyer County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Earthquake 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
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Dyer County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Dyer County shows 24 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Dyer County: 18 of 24 of its declarations are Major.
Dyer County: NRI composite 86.6 (Relatively Moderate).
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 Dyer County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Dyer 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.
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA NRI score. This county: 86.6 (Relatively Moderate).
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 24. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Understanding disaster data
Dyer County's NFIP claims file (297 claims) and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records - this guide separates them from modeled NRI risk.
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 Dyer County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Tennessee profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events