FEMA Records
37
Very high volume
Louisiana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
37 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
The verdict
Grant Parish 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 11% below the Louisiana county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 30%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
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.
Grant Parish vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
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 · 2026-08-03
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Grant Parish is led by Riverine Flooding (about $4.2M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), while Heat Wave 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.
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 438 paid claims, totaling $5.3M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $12.1K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Louisiana county averages 41.4 federal declaration records, while Grant Parish has 37. The gap is 11% 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.
Nationally, Grant Parish's 37 FEMA records form a high-volume history; within Louisiana, however, the count is 11% below the county mean. 21 entries carry the Major Disaster classification. The largest incident group is Hurricane, appearing 17 times. The full 53-year record averages 0.7 declarations annually. A DR label alone does not say whether Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, or both followed.
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 29.6/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $8.3M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Relatively Moderate social-vulnerability score and Relatively Low community-resilience score. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Heat Wave, 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 22 modeled event-days per year here, based on 351 historical events on record.
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Grant Parish, LA · 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
37 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.8x national county average)
37 declarations (0.9x state county average of 41)
21 of 37 declarations are major disasters (57%)
10 different disaster types declared in Grant Parish
Activity Band
High
vs. Louisiana Avg
-11%
State avg: 41.4
vs. National Avg
+79%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.7
Over 53 years
Each axis: NRI risk rating (Very Low-Very High) on a 0-100 scale. Rounder = broad exposure; spiky = one or two hazards dominate.
FEMA Records
37
Very high volume
Major Disaster share
57%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
30
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 22 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 12 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.7 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 31 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 73 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 1 time per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,164 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 858 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 2.7 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 2.1 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Grant Parish's federal record, 46% 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.
FEMA categorizes declarations as Major Disasters (DR), Emergencies (EM), or Fire Management Assistance (FM).
of all 37 declarations
of all 37 declarations
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 8 | |
| 2020 | 6 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 4 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 2 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1989 | 2 | |
| 1988 | 1 | |
| 1983 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3638 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 3614 | TROPICAL STORM FRANCINE | EM | Hurricane | 2024-09-10 |
| 3574 | TROPICAL STORM NICHOLAS | EM | Coastal Storm | 2021-09-13 |
| 4611 | HURRICANE IDA | DR | Hurricane | 2021-08-29 |
| 3568 | TROPICAL STORM IDA | EM | Hurricane | 2021-08-27 |
| 4590 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-03-09 |
| 3556 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-18 |
| 3549 | TROPICAL STORM ZETA | EM | Hurricane | 2020-10-27 |
| 4570 | HURRICANE DELTA | DR | Hurricane | 2020-10-16 |
| 3547 | HURRICANE DELTA | EM | Hurricane | 2020-10-07 |
| 3543 | HURRICANE SALLY | EM | Hurricane | 2020-09-14 |
| 4559 | HURRICANE LAURA | DR | Hurricane | 2020-08-28 |
| 3538 | TROPICAL STORMS LAURA AND MARCO | EM | Hurricane | 2020-08-23 |
| 3527 | TROPICAL STORM CRISTOBAL | EM | Coastal Storm | 2020-06-07 |
| 4484 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-24 |
| 3459 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4263 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2016-03-13 |
| 4228 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2015-07-13 |
| 1786 | HURRICANE GUSTAV | DR | Hurricane | 2008-09-02 |
| 3289 | HURRICANE GUSTAV | EM | Hurricane | 2008-08-29 |
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1668 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-11-02 |
| 1607 | HURRICANE RITA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-09-24 |
| 3260 | HURRICANE RITA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-21 |
| 1603 | HURRICANE KATRINA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-08-29 |
| 3212 | HURRICANE KATRINA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-08-27 |
| 1548 | HURRICANE IVAN | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-15 |
| 3172 | LOSS OF SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA | EM | Other | 2003-02-01 |
| 1437 | HURRICANE LILI | DR | Hurricane | 2002-10-03 |
| 1264 | SEVERE ICE STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-01-21 |
| 904 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1991-05-03 |
| 835 | TROPICAL STORM ALLISON | DR | Flood | 1989-07-17 |
| 829 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1989-05-20 |
| 804 | TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 1987-11-30 |
| 675 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1983-01-11 |
| 3031 | DROUGHT & FREEZING | EM | Snowstorm | 1977-02-22 |
| 470 | HEAVY RAINS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1975-06-06 |
| 374 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-04-27 |
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Grant Parish.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 3,274 | 12 | 29 | $24.9M |
| Flash Flood | 1,516 | 20 | 17 | $3.9B |
| Hail | 1,224 | 0 | 0 | $49.3M |
| Excessive Heat | 1,183 | 3 | 0 | $0 |
| Heat | 1,106 | 5 | 0 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
Total Claims
438
Total Paid
$5.3M
Avg Per Claim
$12.1K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 29.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$8.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) Ratings reflect relative scores among all US counties. Data: hazards.fema.gov/nri
Heat Wave is measured in event-days per year rather than discrete events, and it is the hazard whose harm is most consistently undercounted: its toll is health and mortality, concentrated among people without cooling, rather than visible damage to property.
Worth noting for Grant Parish: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Heat Wave 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
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Grant Parish. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Grant Parish shows 37 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Grant Parish: 21 of 37 of its declarations are Major.
Grant Parish: NRI composite 29.6 (Very Low).
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 Grant Parish - capture-dated entries only.
Understanding disaster data
Grant Parish's NFIP claims file (438 claims) and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records - this guide separates them from modeled NRI risk.
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.
What this means for Grant Parish
Against a Louisiana county mean of 41 declarations, Grant Parish, LA records 37, or 11% fewer. PlainHazard classifies that historical total as high activity.
A below-average federal record is not a safety guarantee. Use National Weather Service alerts and local emergency-management notices for present conditions, not this historical comparison.
PlainHazard derives this profile from FEMA's Disaster Declarations Summaries and National Risk Index data. The declaration comparison covers 3,266 U.S. counties and county equivalents in this database, refreshed as of 2026-08-03. Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Verify with FEMA → · Verify with FEMA NRI → · Verify with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.