FEMA Records
21
Above median
Tennessee · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Henry County, TN
21 FEMA disaster declarations (1975-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 21
- FEMA declarations
- 17
- Major disasters
- 85
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Henry County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 21 declarations, more than 52% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 2% below the Tennessee county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 15%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 15%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 21
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 39
- 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 47079 · Henry County 21 declarations · rank 1435/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 21
- MAJOR-HEAVY 81%
- RANK-LOWER #1,435
- PHOTO-FINISH Montgomery
- NRI-MID 85
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -2%
Nearest declaration peer: Montgomery, IN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Tennessee state profile
Henry County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Henry County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Atascosa · near 21
Atascosa · near
21 declarations
- Henry · this county 21
Henry · this county
21 declarations
- Mason · near 21
Mason · near
21 declarations
- Montgomery · near 21
Montgomery · near
21 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Henry County carries 21 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1435 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Henry County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Henry County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Henry County
21 Top 48% higher than 52% 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
Henry County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Henry County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 84.7/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $38.4M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very High and community resilience Relatively Low, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Cold Wave stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 2.4 times per year here, based on 46 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 39 claims and $236.1K 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 Tennessee county averages 21.4 federal declaration records, while Henry County has 21. The gap is 2% 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.
65 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Henry County, TN · 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
15/30
21 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
21 declarations (1.0x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share Very High
20/25
17 of 21 declarations are major disasters (81%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Henry County
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
81%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
85
Relatively Moderate
Source: 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Wave | Relatively High | an average of 2.4 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 126 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 7.2 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 57 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 11 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.4 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 8 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 44 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 7,435 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 2.9 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 12
Winter Storm 2
Tornado 2
Biological 2
Severe Ice Storm 1
Hurricane 1
Flood 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Henry County's record, 57% 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 81.0%
of all 21 declarations
Emergency - 4 19.0%
of all 21 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | |
| 2025 | 2 | |
| 2023 | 2 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 21 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 21 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4898 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Winter Storm | 2026-02-06 |
| 3635 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4878 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2025-06-19 |
| 3625 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | EM | Severe Storm | 2025-04-02 |
| 4735 | SEVERE STORMS AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-09-04 |
| 4712 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADO | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-05-17 |
| 4637 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 2022-01-14 |
| 4550 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2020-07-09 |
| 4514 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-02 |
| 3473 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4189 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2014-08-13 |
| 1979 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-05-09 |
| 1974 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND ASSOCIATED FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-05-01 |
| 1909 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-05-04 |
| 1821 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2009-02-17 |
| 3217 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1464 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-05-08 |
| 1331 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-06-12 |
| 1167 | HEAVY RAINS, TORNADOES, FLOODING, HAIL, HIGH WINDS | DR | Tornado | 1997-03-07 |
| 1010 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM,FLASH FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-02-28 |
Show 1 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 459 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-03-22 |
Storm Events in Tennessee
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Henry County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 6,558 | 22 | 58 | $107.0M |
| Hail | 1,690 | 0 | 0 | $545.5K |
| Heat | 1,343 | 9 | 15 | $0 |
| Flash Flood | 1,264 | 55 | 3 | $334.4M |
| Winter Weather | 1,088 | 5 | 0 | $261.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
39
Total Paid
$236.1K
Avg Per Claim
$6.1K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 84.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$38.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively High
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Very Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Hail 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: Cold Wave
Cold Wave measures exposure to extreme cold rather than to snow. Its harm is concentrated in health effects, burst infrastructure and energy demand spikes, and it falls hardest where the building stock and the grid were not built with sustained cold in mind.
Worth noting for Henry County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave 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
Henry County's closest FEMA peer: Chippewa County, MN
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 21 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Henry County: 17 of 21 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Henry County: NRI composite 84.7 (Relatively Moderate).
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.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Henry 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: 84.7 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 21. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 21 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).
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 12 declarations. Other disaster types include Winter Storm (2), Tornado (2), Biological (2).
How does Henry County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Tennessee average?
The typical Tennessee county has 21.4 FEMA declaration records; Henry County has 21, or 2% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 1% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Henry County received?
Henry County has received 17 major disaster declarations, representing 81% of all 21 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Henry County filed?
Henry County has 39 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $236.1K in payments, with an average of $6.1K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Henry County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Henry County was 2020, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1975 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Henry County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Henry County, Tennessee has an overall risk score of 84.7 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). On social vulnerability the county rates Very High; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $38.4M 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 Cold Wave (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Earthquake (Relatively Moderate) and Tornado (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 2.4 times per year, drawn from 46 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 Henry County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Tennessee profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events