FEMA Records
21
Above median
Georgia · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Fulton County, GA
21 FEMA disaster declarations (1975-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively High. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 21
- FEMA declarations
- 13
- Major disasters
- 96
- NRI risk · Relatively High
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Fulton County. Its 21 FEMA declarations are 21% above the Georgia county mean and exceed the count for 52% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 4%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 4%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively High
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 21
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 3,095
- 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 13121 · Fulton County 21 declarations · rank 1458/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-HIGH · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 21
- MAJOR-MID 62%
- RANK-LOWER #1,458
- PHOTO-FINISH Montgomery
- NRI-HIGH 96
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-ABOVE +21%
Nearest declaration peer: Montgomery, IN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Georgia state profile
Fulton County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Fulton County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Atascosa · near 21
Atascosa · near
21 declarations
- Fulton · this county 21
Fulton · 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 Fulton County carries 21 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1458 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Fulton County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Fulton County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Fulton 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
Fulton County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Fulton County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $164.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Lightning carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Very High). 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 Fulton County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 3,095 claims and $95.7M in payments. PlainHazard labels 500 or more claims a heavy registry record; that is a reporting bucket, not an official FEMA risk grade. The average paid claim was $30.9K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Fulton County's 21 federal records stand 21% 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 95.8/100 (Relatively High). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively High (roughly $234.6M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very Low and community resilience Relatively High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Lightning stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 64 times per year here, based on 754,623 historical events on record.
65 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Fulton 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) High
15/30
21 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
15/25
21 declarations (1.2x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share High
15/25
13 of 21 declarations are major disasters (62%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
9 different disaster types declared in Fulton County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Fulton 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
96
Relatively High
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Fulton 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lightning | Very High | an average of 64 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively High | an average of 2.7 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively High | roughly once every 3 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 460 years |
| Hail | Relatively High | an average of 5.6 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 2.8 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 2.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1 time per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively High | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 26 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.5 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 11,640 years |
| Drought | No Rating | 36 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
Hurricane 6
Severe Storm 5
Biological 2
Severe Ice Storm 2
Tornado 2
Winter Storm 1
Tropical Storm 1
Snowstorm 1
Drought 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Fulton County's federal record, 29% 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 - 13 61.9%
of all 21 declarations
Emergency - 8 38.1%
of all 21 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 2 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
Show 2 earlier declaration years
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3642 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4830 | HURRICANE HELENE | DR | Hurricane | 2024-09-30 |
| 3616 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-26 |
| 4501 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-29 |
| 3464 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4338 | HURRICANE IRMA | DR | Hurricane | 2017-09-15 |
| 3387 | HURRICANE IRMA | EM | Hurricane | 2017-09-08 |
| 4165 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2014-03-06 |
| 3368 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2014-02-11 |
| 1858 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-09-24 |
| 1750 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-03-20 |
| 3218 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1554 | HURRICANE IVAN | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-18 |
| 1311 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-01-28 |
| 1209 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-03-11 |
| 1071 | HURRICANE OPAL | DR | Hurricane | 1995-10-10 |
| 1033 | TORNADOES, FLOODING TORRENTIAL RAIN(TROP STORM ALBERTO) | DR | Tornado | 1994-07-07 |
| 3097 | SEVERE SNOWFALL, WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-15 |
| 857 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNAODES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-02-23 |
| 3044 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-07-20 |
Show 1 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 460 | TORNADOES, HIGH WINDS & HEAVY RAINS | DR | Tornado | 1975-03-29 |
Storm Events in Georgia
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Fulton 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
3,095
Total Paid
$95.7M
Avg Per Claim
$30.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively High
Score: 95.8/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively High
$234.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Lightning Very High
Riverine Flooding Relatively High
Tornado Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively High
Strong Wind Relatively High
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively High
Cold Wave Relatively High
Hurricane Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Wildfire 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: Lightning
Lightning is modeled as a high-frequency, low-per-event hazard: strike counts are large, but each strike affects a very small area. Its aggregate cost accumulates through structure fires, electrical and electronic damage, and it is one of the few hazards whose risk is essentially continuous through the season rather than episodic.
Worth noting for Fulton County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Lightning carries the highest modeled rating (Very High), while the county's declaration history is led by Hurricane. 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
Fulton County's closest FEMA peer: Blanco County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Fulton County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Fulton County shows 21 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Fulton County: 13 of 21 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Fulton County: NRI composite 95.8 (Relatively High).
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 Fulton County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Fulton 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: 95.8 (Relatively High).
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
Fulton County's NFIP claims file (3,095 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 Fulton County?
The most common disaster type in Fulton County is Hurricane, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (5), Biological (2), Severe Ice Storm (2).
How does Fulton County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Georgia average?
FEMA lists 21 declaration records for Fulton County. That is 21% above the Georgia county mean of 17.4. 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 Fulton County received?
Fulton County has received 13 major disaster declarations, representing 62% of all 21 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Fulton County filed?
Fulton County has 3,095 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $95.7M in payments, with an average of $30.9K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Fulton County?
No. In Fulton County, Lightning has the highest National Risk Index rating (Very High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $164.3M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Fulton County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Fulton County was 2014, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1975 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Fulton County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Fulton County, Georgia has an overall risk score of 95.8 out of 100 (Relatively High). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively High, representing $234.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Fulton County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Fulton County is Lightning (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Riverine Flooding (Relatively High) and Tornado (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts lightning here at an average of 64 times per year, drawn from 754,623 historical events on record. 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 Fulton County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Georgia profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events