FEMA Records
37
Very high volume
Florida · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Glades County, FL
37 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 37
- FEMA declarations
- 21
- Major disasters
- 48
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Glades County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 37 declarations, more than 95% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 8% below the Florida county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 48%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 48%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 37
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 56
- 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 12043 · Glades County 37 declarations · rank 167/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 37
- MAJOR-MID 57%
- RANK-UPPER #167
- PHOTO-FINISH Washita
- NRI-LOW 48
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-BELOW -8%
Nearest declaration peer: Washita, OK (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Florida state profile
Glades County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Glades County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Glades · this county
Glades · this county
37 declarations
- Grant · near
Grant · near
37 declarations
- Marion · near
Marion · near
37 declarations
- Washita · near
Washita · near
37 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Glades County carries 37 FEMA declaration records, ranked 167 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Glades County ranks in the national declaration registry
Glades County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Glades County
37 Top 5% higher than 95% 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
Glades County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Glades County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $3.2M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), 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 Glades County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 56 paid claims, totaling $393.8K. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $7.0K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Florida county averages 40.4 federal declaration records, while Glades County has 37. The gap is 8% 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 48.0/100 for this county (Relatively Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $8.8M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very High) and community resilience (Very Low) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. 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 106 years here.
70 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Glades County, FL · 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) Very High
27/30
37 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
37 declarations (0.9x state county average of 40)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
21 of 37 declarations are major disasters (57%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Glades County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Glades 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
57%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
48
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Glades 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 106 years |
| Hurricane | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 100 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 21 modeled event-days per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 2.8 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 3.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 12 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 4,000 years |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Coastal Flooding | No Rating | roughly once every 100 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 20
Fire 5
Tropical Storm 3
Severe Storm 3
Freezing 3
Biological 2
Tornado 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Glades County's federal record, 54% 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 - 21 56.8%
of all 37 declarations
Emergency - 13 35.1%
of all 37 declarations
Fire Management - 3 8.1%
of all 37 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2 | |
| 2024 | 2 | |
| 2023 | 2 | |
| 2022 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 3 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 3 | |
| 2001 | 2 | |
| 2000 | 2 | |
Show 6 earlier declaration years
| 1999 | 3 | |
| 1998 | 3 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 37 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 37 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4834 | HURRICANE MILTON | DR | Hurricane | 2024-10-11 |
| 3622 | HURRICANE MILTON | EM | Hurricane | 2024-10-07 |
| 4806 | HURRICANE DEBBY | DR | Tropical Storm | 2024-08-10 |
| 3605 | TROPICAL STORM DEBBY | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-08-03 |
| 4680 | HURRICANE NICOLE | DR | Hurricane | 2022-12-13 |
| 3587 | TROPICAL STORM NICOLE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2022-11-08 |
| 4673 | HURRICANE IAN | DR | Hurricane | 2022-09-29 |
| 3584 | TROPICAL STORM IAN | EM | Hurricane | 2022-09-24 |
| 4486 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3432 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 3419 | HURRICANE DORIAN | EM | Hurricane | 2019-08-30 |
| 4337 | HURRICANE IRMA | DR | Hurricane | 2017-09-10 |
| 3385 | HURRICANE IRMA | EM | Hurricane | 2017-09-05 |
| 3377 | HURRICANE MATTHEW | EM | Hurricane | 2016-10-06 |
| 4084 | HURRICANE ISAAC | DR | Hurricane | 2012-10-18 |
| 1785 | TROPICAL STORM FAY | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-08-24 |
| 3288 | TROPICAL STORM FAY | EM | Severe Storm | 2008-08-21 |
| 2696 | OKEECHOBEE FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2007-06-27 |
| 1609 | HURRICANE WILMA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-10-24 |
| 3220 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
Show 17 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1561 | HURRICANE JEANNE | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-26 |
| 1545 | HURRICANE FRANCES | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-04 |
| 1539 | TROPICAL STORM BONNIE AND HURRICANE CHARLEY | DR | Hurricane | 2004-08-13 |
| 2354 | FL - OKEECHOBEE COMPLEX FIRE | FM | Fire | 2001-02-19 |
| 1359 | SEVERE FREEZE | DR | Freezing | 2001-02-05 |
| 1306 | FL-HURRICANE IRENE-DR-REQ | DR | Hurricane | 1999-10-20 |
| 3150 | TROPICAL STORM IRENE - FLORIDA | EM | Hurricane | 1999-10-15 |
| 1300 | HURRICANE FLOYD MAJOR DISASTER DECLARATIONS | DR | Hurricane | 1999-09-22 |
| 3139 | FL-FIRES 04/15/99 | EM | Fire | 1999-04-27 |
| 2251 | OKEECHOBEE FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 1999-04-15 |
| 3131 | HURRICANE GRORGES | EM | Hurricane | 1998-09-25 |
| 1223 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | DR | Fire | 1998-06-18 |
| 1195 | SEVERE STORMS, HIGH WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-01-06 |
| 982 | TORNADOES, FLOODING, HIGH WINDS & TIDES, FREEZING | DR | Tornado | 1993-03-13 |
| 851 | SEVERE FREEZE | DR | Freezing | 1990-01-15 |
| 526 | SEVERE WINTER WEATHER | DR | Freezing | 1977-01-31 |
| 209 | HURRICANE BETSY | DR | Hurricane | 1965-09-14 |
Storm Events in Florida
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Glades County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 5,243 | 17 | 45 | $24.8M |
| Hail | 1,012 | 0 | 0 | $564.6K |
| Heavy Rain | 865 | 2 | 3 | $200.0K |
| Flood | 826 | 9 | 0 | $2.0B |
| Tropical Storm | 767 | 92 | 6 | $4.9B |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
56
Total Paid
$393.8K
Avg Per Claim
$7.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 48.0/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$8.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Low
Hurricane Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively High
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Hail Very Low
Coastal Flooding No Rating
Winter Weather 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: 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 Glades 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 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
Glades County's closest FEMA peer: Travis County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Glades County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Glades County shows 37 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Glades County: 21 of 37 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Glades County: NRI composite 48.0 (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 Glades County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Glades 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: 48.0 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 37. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Glades County's NFIP claims file (56 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 Glades County?
The most common disaster type in Glades County is Hurricane, with 20 declarations. Other disaster types include Fire (5), Tropical Storm (3), Severe Storm (3).
How does Glades County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Florida average?
The typical Florida county has 40.4 FEMA declaration records; Glades County has 37, or 8% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 79% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Glades County received?
Glades County has received 21 major disaster declarations, representing 57% of all 37 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Glades County filed?
Glades County has 56 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $393.8K in payments, with an average of $7.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Glades County?
No. In Glades County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $3.2M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Glades County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Glades County was 1998, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2025.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Glades County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Glades County, Florida has an overall risk score of 48.0 out of 100 (Relatively Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very High and community resilience is Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $8.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Glades County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Glades County is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Hurricane (Relatively Moderate) and Lightning (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 106 years. 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 Glades County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Florida profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events