FEMA Records
18
Below median
Virginia · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Gloucester County, VA
18 FEMA disaster declarations (1972-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 18
- FEMA declarations
- 10
- Major disasters
- 23
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Gloucester County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 18 declarations, more than 37% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 12% below the Virginia county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 23%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 23%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 18
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 1,378
- 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 51073 · Gloucester County 18 declarations · rank 1991/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 18
- MAJOR-MID 56%
- RANK-LOWER #1,991
- PHOTO-FINISH Monroe
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-BELOW -12%
Nearest declaration peer: Monroe, TN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Virginia state profile
Gloucester County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Gloucester County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Brooke · near 18
Brooke · near
18 declarations
- Gloucester · this county 18
Gloucester · this county
18 declarations
- Mecklenburg · near 18
Mecklenburg · near
18 declarations
- Monroe · near 18
Monroe · near
18 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Gloucester County carries 18 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1991 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Gloucester County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Gloucester County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Gloucester County
18 37th percentile higher than 37% 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
Gloucester County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Gloucester County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $3.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very Low), while Hurricane 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 Gloucester County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 1,378 claims and $30.9M 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 $22.4K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
Start with the state benchmark: a Virginia county averages 20.4 federal declaration records, while Gloucester County has 18. The gap is 12% 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
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 22.6/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $9.0M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Relatively Low social-vulnerability score and Relatively High community-resilience score. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Hurricane, 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 5 years here, based on 66 historical events on record.
56 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Gloucester County, VA · 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
13/30
18 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
18 declarations (0.9x state county average of 20)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
10 of 18 declarations are major disasters (56%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Gloucester County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Gloucester 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
56%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
23
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Gloucester 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 2.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Coastal Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.7 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 1 time per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 5.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 3,997 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 845 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 15 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 41 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 2 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 4.5 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 8
Snowstorm 3
Biological 2
Flood 2
Winter Storm 1
Severe Storm 1
Freezing 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Gloucester County's federal record, 44% 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 - 10 55.6%
of all 18 declarations
Emergency - 8 44.4%
of all 18 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 2 | |
| 1996 | 2 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 18 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 18 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3631 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-23 |
| 4512 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-02 |
| 3448 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 3403 | HURRICANE FLORENCE | EM | Hurricane | 2018-09-11 |
| 3359 | HURRICANE SANDY | EM | Hurricane | 2012-10-29 |
| 3329 | HURRICANE IRENE | EM | Hurricane | 2011-08-26 |
| 1661 | TROPICAL DEPRESSION ERNESTO, SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-09-22 |
| 3240 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-12 |
| 1491 | HURRICANE ISABEL | DR | Hurricane | 2003-09-18 |
| 1293 | HURRICANE FLOYD MAJOR DISASTER DECLARATIONS | DR | Hurricane | 1999-09-18 |
| 3147 | HURRICANE FLOYD EMERGENCY DECLARATIONS | EM | Hurricane | 1999-09-16 |
| 1135 | HURRICANE FRAN AND ASSOCIATED SEVERE STORM COND | DR | Hurricane | 1996-09-06 |
| 1086 | BLIZZARD OF 96 (SEVERE SNOW STORM) | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-13 |
| 1014 | SEVERE ICE STORMS, FLOODING | DR | Snowstorm | 1994-03-10 |
| 3112 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-25 |
| 755 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1985-11-09 |
| 525 | ICE CONDITIONS | DR | Freezing | 1977-01-26 |
| 339 | TROPICAL STORM AGNES | DR | Flood | 1972-06-23 |
Storm Events in Virginia
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Gloucester County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 8,940 | 13 | 31 | $123.1M |
| Flood | 2,300 | 4 | 0 | $85.1M |
| Winter Weather | 2,049 | 6 | 32 | $902.0K |
| Flash Flood | 1,942 | 13 | 4 | $244.2M |
| Heavy Rain | 1,566 | 0 | 0 | $2.5M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
1,378
Total Paid
$30.9M
Avg Per Claim
$22.4K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 22.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$9.0M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hurricane Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Moderate
Coastal Flooding Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Hail 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: Hurricane
Hurricane exposure in the model bundles the three ways a tropical system does harm, which arrive on different timescales and are insured differently: wind, storm surge on the coast, and rainfall flooding that can reach far inland well after landfall.
For Gloucester County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hurricane is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Low), and Hurricane declarations also lead its federal record. Where the model and the declaration history agree, the reading is comparatively straightforward, the hazard is both expected and repeatedly realised.
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
Gloucester County's closest FEMA peer: Gordon County, GA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Gloucester County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Gloucester County shows 18 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Gloucester County: 10 of 18 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Gloucester County: NRI composite 22.6 (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 Gloucester County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Gloucester 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: 22.6 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 18. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Gloucester County's NFIP claims file (1,378 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 Gloucester County?
The most common disaster type in Gloucester County is Hurricane, with 8 declarations. Other disaster types include Snowstorm (3), Biological (2), Flood (2).
How does Gloucester County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Virginia average?
The typical Virginia county has 20.4 FEMA declaration records; Gloucester County has 18, or 12% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 13% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Gloucester County received?
Gloucester County has received 10 major disaster declarations, representing 56% of all 18 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Gloucester County filed?
Gloucester County has 1,378 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $30.9M in payments, with an average of $22.4K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Gloucester County?
No. In Gloucester County, Hurricane has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $3.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Gloucester County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Gloucester County was 1996, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1972 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Gloucester County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Gloucester County, Virginia has an overall risk score of 22.6 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $9.0M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Gloucester County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Gloucester County is Hurricane (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Moderate) and Coastal Flooding (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hurricane here at roughly once every 5 years, drawn from 66 historical events on record. 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 Gloucester County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Virginia profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events