FEMA Records
18
Below median
Georgia · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Gordon County, GA
18 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 18
- FEMA declarations
- 10
- Major disasters
- 67
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Gordon County. Its 18 FEMA declarations are 4% above the Georgia county mean and exceed the count for 37% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 33%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 33%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 18
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 41
- 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 13129 · Gordon County 18 declarations · rank 2048/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-MID 18
- MAJOR-MID 56%
- RANK-LOWER #2,048
- PHOTO-FINISH Monroe
- NRI-LOW 67
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-ABOVE +4%
Nearest declaration peer: Monroe, TN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Georgia state profile
Gordon County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Gordon County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Brooke · near 18
Brooke · near
18 declarations
- Gordon · this county 18
Gordon · 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 Gordon County carries 18 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2048 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Gordon County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Gordon County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Gordon 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
Gordon County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Gordon County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $10.1M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), while Drought carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively 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 Gordon County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 67.2/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $27.7M in annualized losses), and a Relatively Low social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively Low community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Drought stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 31 modeled event-days per year here, based on 987 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 41 claims and $1.8M 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.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Gordon County's 18 federal records stand 4% 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.
60 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Gordon 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) Moderate
13/30
18 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
13/25
18 declarations (1.0x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
10 of 18 declarations are major disasters (56%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
9 different disaster types declared in Gordon County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Gordon 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
67
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Gordon 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drought | Relatively High | 31 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 259 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 4 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.9 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 62 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 42 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 5.2 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,013 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 4.7 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 1.7 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
Severe Storm 5
Hurricane 4
Biological 2
Tornado 2
Winter Storm 1
Tropical Storm 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
Snowstorm 1
Drought 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Gordon County's record, 28% 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.
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 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1973 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3642 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 3616 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-26 |
| 4600 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2021-05-05 |
| 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 |
| 3368 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2014-02-11 |
| 1973 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND ASSOCIATED FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-04-29 |
| 3218 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 425 | TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1974-04-05 |
| 370 | TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 1973-04-04 |
Storm Events in Georgia
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Gordon 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
41
Total Paid
$1.8M
Avg Per Claim
$43.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 67.2/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$27.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Hurricane Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Heat Wave 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: Drought
Drought is the slowest of the modeled hazards and the least visible: it does its damage to agriculture, water supply and soil over seasons rather than hours, so it rarely produces the kind of single-day damage that drives a disaster declaration. FEMA scores it in event-days per year rather than discrete events for exactly that reason.
Worth noting for Gordon County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively High), 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
Gordon County's closest FEMA peer: Chatham County, NC
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Gordon County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Gordon County: NRI composite 67.2 (Relatively Low).
Similar Major-disaster share
Gordon County: 10 of 18 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Gordon County shows 18 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
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 Gordon County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Gordon 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: 67.2 (Relatively 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
Most disaster-prone counties
With 18 FEMA declarations, Gordon 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 Gordon County?
The most common disaster type in Gordon County is Severe Storm, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (4), Biological (2), Tornado (2).
How does Gordon County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Georgia average?
FEMA lists 18 declaration records for Gordon County. That is 4% above the Georgia county mean of 17.4. Its count is also 13% below 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 Gordon County received?
Gordon County has received 10 major disaster declarations, representing 56% of all 18 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Gordon County filed?
Gordon County has 41 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $1.8M in payments, with an average of $43.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Gordon County?
No. In Gordon County, Drought has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $10.1M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Gordon County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Gordon County was 2017, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Gordon County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Gordon County, Georgia has an overall risk score of 67.2 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Low; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $27.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Gordon County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Gordon County is Drought (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Earthquake (Relatively Low) and Tornado (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 31 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 987 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 Gordon County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Georgia profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events