FEMA Records
18
Below median
New York · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Hamilton County, NY
18 FEMA disaster declarations (1993-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 18
- FEMA declarations
- 12
- Major disasters
- 15
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Hamilton 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 27% below the New York county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 15%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 15%
- 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
- 35
- 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 36041 · Hamilton County 18 declarations · rank 2044/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 18
- MAJOR-MID 67%
- RANK-LOWER #2,044
- PHOTO-FINISH Monroe
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -27%
Nearest declaration peer: Monroe, TN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · New York state profile
Hamilton County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Hamilton County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Brooke · near 18
Brooke · near
18 declarations
- Hamilton · this county 18
Hamilton · 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 Hamilton County carries 18 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2044 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Hamilton County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Hamilton County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Hamilton 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
Hamilton County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Hamilton County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $4.8M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Landslide 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 Hamilton County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 15.1/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $5.5M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Relatively Moderate social-vulnerability score and Very High community-resilience score. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Landslide, 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 an average of 2.8 times per year here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 35 claims and $719.0K 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 New York county averages 24.5 federal declaration records, while Hamilton County has 18. The gap is 27% 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.
59 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Hamilton County, NY · 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
9/25
18 declarations (0.7x state county average of 25)
Major Disaster Share High
17/25
12 of 18 declarations are major disasters (67%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Hamilton County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Hamilton 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
67%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
15
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Hamilton 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Landslide | Relatively Low | an average of 2.8 times per year |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 417 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 103 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 1 time per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 31 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | an average of 6.6 times per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 23 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 9 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 33,951 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 1.4 times 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 3
Flood 2
Biological 2
Snowstorm 2
Other 2
Earthquake 1
Fire 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Hamilton 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 - 12 66.7%
of all 18 declarations
Emergency - 6 33.3%
of all 18 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 2 | |
| 1993 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4814 | SEVERE STORM, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2024-08-29 |
| 4723 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-07-22 |
| 4480 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-20 |
| 3434 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4472 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2019-12-19 |
| 4322 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2017-07-12 |
| 3351 | HURRICANE SANDY | EM | Hurricane | 2012-10-28 |
| 4020 | HURRICANE IRENE | DR | Hurricane | 2011-08-31 |
| 1993 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Flood | 2011-06-10 |
| 1670 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-12-12 |
| 1650 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-07-01 |
| 3262 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-30 |
| 1534 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-08-03 |
| 3186 | POWER OUTAGE | EM | Other | 2003-08-23 |
| 1415 | EARTHQUAKE | DR | Earthquake | 2002-05-16 |
| 1391 | FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS | DR | Fire | 2001-09-11 |
| 3155 | WEST NILE VIRUS | EM | Other | 2000-10-11 |
| 3107 | SEVERE BLIZZARD | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-17 |
Storm Events in New York
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Hamilton County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 8,295 | 6 | 45 | $45.0M |
| Winter Weather | 2,261 | 7 | 17 | $705.5K |
| Flash Flood | 1,775 | 23 | 3 | $674.3M |
| Strong Wind | 1,399 | 2 | 12 | $9.2M |
| Winter Storm | 1,228 | 13 | 2 | $4.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
35
Total Paid
$719.0K
Avg Per Claim
$20.5K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 15.1/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$5.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Landslide Relatively Low
Avalanche Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Hail Very Low
Drought 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: Landslide
Landslide risk is a function of slope, soil and water, so it is usually a SECOND-ORDER hazard: it is triggered by the rainfall, snowmelt, wildfire burn scars or seismic shaking that came first. That is why a county can carry high landslide exposure whose realized damage is recorded under a flood or storm declaration instead.
Worth noting for Hamilton County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Landslide carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Low), 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
Hamilton County's closest FEMA peer: Blair County, PA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Hamilton County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Hamilton County shows 18 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Hamilton County: 12 of 18 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Hamilton County: NRI composite 15.1 (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 Hamilton County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Hamilton 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: 15.1 (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
Most disaster-prone counties
With 18 FEMA declarations, Hamilton 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 Hamilton County?
The most common disaster type in Hamilton County is Severe Storm, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (3), Flood (2), Biological (2).
How does Hamilton County's FEMA declaration record compare with the New York average?
The typical New York county has 24.5 FEMA declaration records; Hamilton County has 18, or 27% 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 Hamilton County received?
Hamilton County has received 12 major disaster declarations, representing 67% of all 18 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Hamilton County filed?
Hamilton County has 35 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $719.0K in payments, with an average of $20.5K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Hamilton County?
No. In Hamilton County, Landslide has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $4.8M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Hamilton County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Hamilton County was 2020, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1993 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Hamilton County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Hamilton County, New York has an overall risk score of 15.1 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Moderate, while community resilience comes in at Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $5.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Hamilton County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Hamilton County as of the latest release is Landslide (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Avalanche (Very Low) and Earthquake (Very Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts landslide here at an average of 2.8 times per year. 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 Hamilton County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · New York profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events