FEMA Records
28
High volume
Alabama · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Henry County, AL
28 FEMA disaster declarations (1976-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 28
- FEMA declarations
- 17
- Major disasters
- 42
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Henry County. Its 28 FEMA declarations are 8% above the Alabama county mean and exceed the count for 81% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 42%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 42%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 28
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 19
- 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.
How does Henry County compare?
Henry County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
28 Top 19% higher than 81% 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
Henry County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Alabama county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Henry County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $3.0M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Hurricane carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). 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 Henry County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 42.0/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $8.5M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very High) and community resilience (Relatively Moderate) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Hurricane carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 7 years here, based on 52 historical events on record.
Declaration frequency
The FEMA register is busy by both local and national comparisons. It contains 28 entries for Henry County, including 17 Major Disaster records, 8% above the Alabama county mean. Across the 48-year span, that works out to 0.6 declarations a year. Severe Storm leads the file with 13 entries. Declaration type records the federal action taken, not every assistance program approved.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 19 claims and $466.5K 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. Henry County's 28 federal records stand 8% above the Alabama county mean of 25.8. 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.
62 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Henry County, AL · 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) High
20/30
28 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.4x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
14/25
28 declarations (1.1x state county average of 26)
Major Disaster Share High
15/25
17 of 28 declarations are major disasters (61%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Henry County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Alabama Avg
+8%
State avg: 25.8
vs. National Avg
+35%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.6
Over 48 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Henry 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
61%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
42
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Henry 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 Moderate | roughly once every 7 years |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 44 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 72 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 2.4 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 4.8 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 923 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 2,310 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 1.6 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 13
Hurricane 11
Biological 2
Snowstorm 1
Drought 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Henry County's record, 46% 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 - 17 60.7%
of all 28 declarations
Emergency - 11 39.3%
of all 28 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 4 | |
| 2019 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
Show 7 earlier declaration years
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 28 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 28 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3618 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Hurricane | 2024-09-26 |
| 3545 | HURRICANE SALLY | EM | Hurricane | 2020-09-14 |
| 4554 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2020-07-10 |
| 4503 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-29 |
| 3472 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4406 | HURRICANE MICHAEL | DR | Hurricane | 2018-11-05 |
| 3407 | HURRICANE MICHAEL | EM | Hurricane | 2018-10-12 |
| 3394 | HURRICANE NATE | EM | Hurricane | 2017-10-08 |
| 3389 | HURRICANE IRMA | EM | Hurricane | 2017-09-11 |
| 4251 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-01-21 |
| 1971 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-04-28 |
| 3319 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | EM | Severe Storm | 2011-04-27 |
| 1870 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-12-31 |
| 1835 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, TORNADOES & STRAIGHT-LINE | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-04-28 |
| 3292 | HURRICANE GUSTAV | EM | Hurricane | 2008-08-30 |
| 1687 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-03-03 |
| 3237 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1593 | HURRICANE DENNIS | DR | Hurricane | 2005-07-10 |
| 1549 | HURRICANE IVAN | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-15 |
| 1442 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-11-14 |
Show 8 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1352 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-12-18 |
| 1208 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-03-09 |
| 1070 | HURRICANE OPAL | DR | Hurricane | 1995-10-04 |
| 1034 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING (TROPICAL STORM ALBERTO) | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-07-08 |
| 3096 | SEVERE SNOWFALL, WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-15 |
| 861 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-03-21 |
| 3045 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-07-20 |
| 488 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1975-10-02 |
Storm Events in Alabama
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Henry County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 7,827 | 16 | 115 | $51.7M |
| Hail | 1,349 | 0 | 0 | $5.0K |
| Flash Flood | 1,047 | 17 | 7 | $12.8M |
| Tornado | 896 | 57 | 343 | $49.7M |
| Drought | 857 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
19
Total Paid
$466.5K
Avg Per Claim
$24.6K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 42.0/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$8.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hurricane Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) 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.
Worth noting for Henry County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Hurricane carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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
Henry County's closest FEMA peer: Calhoun County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Henry County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Henry County shows 28 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Henry County: 17 of 28 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Henry County: NRI composite 42.0 (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 Henry County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 28 FEMA declarations, Henry 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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Henry County?
The most common disaster type in Henry County is Severe Storm, with 13 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (11), Biological (2), Snowstorm (1).
How does Henry County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Alabama average?
FEMA lists 28 declaration records for Henry County. That is 8% above the Alabama county mean of 25.8. Its count is also 35% above 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 Henry County received?
Henry County has received 17 major disaster declarations, representing 61% of all 28 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Henry County filed?
Henry County has 19 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $466.5K in payments, with an average of $24.6K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Henry County?
No. In Henry County, Hurricane has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $3.0M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Henry County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Henry County was 2020, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1976 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Henry County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Henry County, Alabama has an overall risk score of 42.0 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very High; on community resilience, Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $8.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Henry County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Henry County as of the latest release is Hurricane (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Moderate) and Tornado (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hurricane here at roughly once every 7 years, drawn from 52 historical events on record. These scores are based on FEMA's analysis of historical event frequency, 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.
What this means for Henry County
Henry County, AL has 28 federal declaration records, 8% more than the Alabama county mean of 26; its history sits in PlainHazard's high activity band.
- Within this above-state-average declaration file, major disaster leads with 17 of 28 records; the category describes past federal action, not the next likely hazard. Alabama overview
- The state benchmark and national rank point the same way: this count tops the Alabama mean and the totals for 81% of 3,266 U.S. counties. Most-disaster rankings
- A short NFIP claims file cannot establish low flood exposure; the data guide explains the limits of each federal measure. Disaster-data guide
An above-average declaration count records past federal responses; it does not predict the next event. Current warnings come from the National Weather Service and local emergency officials.
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.
All federal data sources used on this page
- FEMA OpenFEMA, Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 - all federally-declared disasters for this county. fema.gov/openfema/disaster-declarations
- FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) - per-county per-hazard risk ratings and expected annual loss. hazards.fema.gov/nri
- NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database - state-level storm/severe-weather event records, 2015-2025. ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainHazard Editorial
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.