FEMA Records
19
Below median
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Gillespie County, TX
19 FEMA disaster declarations (1992-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 19
- FEMA declarations
- 10
- Major disasters
- 58
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Gillespie County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 19 declarations, more than 41% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 9% below the Texas county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 42%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 42%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 19
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 15
- 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 48171 · Gillespie County 19 declarations · rank 1837/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 19
- MAJOR-MID 53%
- RANK-LOWER #1,837
- PHOTO-FINISH Bartow
- NRI-LOW 58
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -9%
Nearest declaration peer: Bartow, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Texas state profile
Gillespie County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Gillespie County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Bartow · near 19
Bartow · near
19 declarations
- Gillespie · this county 19
Gillespie · this county
19 declarations
- Union · near 19
Union · near
19 declarations
- Warren · near 19
Warren · near
19 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Gillespie County carries 19 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1837 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Gillespie County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Gillespie County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Gillespie County
19 41st percentile higher than 41% 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
Gillespie County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Gillespie County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $10.5M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Wildfire carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low). 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 Gillespie County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 57.7/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $17.0M in annualized losses), and a Relatively Moderate social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively Moderate community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Wildfire, 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 543 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 15 claims and $91.0K 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 Texas county averages 20.9 federal declaration records, while Gillespie County has 19. The gap is 9% 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.
58 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Gillespie County, TX · 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
19 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
19 declarations (0.9x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share High
13/25
10 of 19 declarations are major disasters (53%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Gillespie County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Gillespie 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
53%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
58
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Gillespie 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 543 years |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.7 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 131 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.3 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 4 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 3 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 46 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 58 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 3.9 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 4,329 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 4
Fire 4
Hurricane 3
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Severe Storm 2
Winter Storm 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Gillespie County's record, 21% of its declarations. Federal flood declarations cover two mechanisms that behave very differently: riverine flooding, which builds over days as a watershed drains and is usually forecast well in advance, and flash flooding, which can arrive in under an hour from rainfall that fell somewhere upstream.
Flood is also the one hazard class where a second federal dataset exists for the same events. The National Flood Insurance Program records what was actually paid on insured losses, so it measures a narrower thing than the declaration count: uninsured damage, and flooding outside mapped special flood hazard areas, never enters it. Reading the two together is more informative than either alone.
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 - 10 52.6%
of all 19 declarations
Emergency - 8 42.1%
of all 19 declarations
Fire Management - 1 5.3%
of all 19 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 19 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 19 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3649 | FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2026-07-18 |
| 5570 | CRABAPPLE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2025-03-15 |
| 4705 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Winter Storm | 2023-04-21 |
| 4586 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-19 |
| 3554 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-14 |
| 4485 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3458 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4223 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-05-29 |
| 3284 | WILDFIRES | EM | Fire | 2008-03-14 |
| 1624 | EXTREME WILDFIRE THREAT | DR | Fire | 2006-01-11 |
| 1606 | HURRICANE RITA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-09-24 |
| 3261 | HURRICANE RITA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-21 |
| 3216 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-02 |
| 1425 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2002-07-04 |
| 3142 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARDS | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
| 1239 | TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-26 |
| 1179 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1997-07-07 |
| 3113 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Drought | 1993-09-10 |
| 930 | SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS | DR | Flood | 1991-12-26 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Gillespie County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 14,072 | 0 | 15 | $7.4B |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 10,293 | 41 | 141 | $369.9M |
| Drought | 7,032 | 0 | 0 | $86.0K |
| Flash Flood | 4,728 | 338 | 24 | $47.6B |
| Heat | 4,079 | 119 | 405 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
15
Total Paid
$91.0K
Avg Per Claim
$6.1K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 57.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$17.0M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Very Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Earthquake 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: Wildfire
Wildfire risk in the model reflects fuel, terrain, weather and how much development sits in the wildland-urban interface. It is one of the few hazards where the exposure is materially changed by land management and building choices, not only by where the county happens to be.
Worth noting for Gillespie County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Wildfire carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Low), while the county's declaration history is led by Flood. 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
Gillespie County's closest FEMA peer: Bacon County, GA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Gillespie County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Gillespie County shows 19 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Gillespie County: 10 of 19 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Gillespie County: NRI composite 57.7 (Relatively 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 Gillespie County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Gillespie 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: 57.7 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 19. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 19 FEMA declarations, Gillespie 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 Gillespie County?
The most common disaster type in Gillespie County is Flood, with 4 declarations. Other disaster types include Fire (4), Hurricane (3), Severe Ice Storm (2).
How does Gillespie County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
The typical Texas county has 20.9 FEMA declaration records; Gillespie County has 19, or 9% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 8% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Gillespie County received?
Gillespie County has received 10 major disaster declarations, representing 53% of all 19 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Gillespie County filed?
Gillespie County has 15 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $91.0K in payments, with an average of $6.1K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Gillespie County?
No. In Gillespie County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $10.5M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Gillespie County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Gillespie County was 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1992 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Gillespie County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Gillespie County, Texas has an overall risk score of 57.7 out of 100 (Relatively Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Moderate and community resilience is Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $17.0M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Gillespie County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Gillespie County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively Moderate) and Drought (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 543 years. These scores are based on FEMA's analysis of historical event frequency, 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 Gillespie County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events