FEMA Records
28
High volume
North Carolina · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Hertford County, NC
28 FEMA disaster declarations (1968-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 28
- FEMA declarations
- 14
- Major disasters
- 68
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Hertford County. Its 28 FEMA declarations are 17% above the North Carolina county mean and exceed the count for 81% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 32%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 32%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 28
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 159
- 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 37091 · Hertford County 28 declarations · rank 507/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 28
- MAJOR-MID 50%
- RANK-MID #507
- PHOTO-FINISH Loíza
- NRI-LOW 68
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-ABOVE +17%
Nearest declaration peer: Loíza, PR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · North Carolina state profile
Hertford County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Hertford County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Hertford · this county 28
Hertford · this county
28 declarations
- Loíza · near 28
Loíza · near
28 declarations
- Maunabo · near 28
Maunabo · near
28 declarations
- Pawnee · near 28
Pawnee · near
28 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Hertford County carries 28 FEMA declaration records, ranked 507 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Hertford County ranks in the national declaration registry
Hertford County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Hertford County
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 · 2026-08-25
Hertford County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Hertford County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 159 paid claims, totaling $3.2M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $19.9K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Hertford County's 28 federal records stand 17% above the North Carolina county mean of 24.0. 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 68.2/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $17.2M in annualized losses), and a Very High 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, Hurricane stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 4 years here, based on 73 historical events on record.
68 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Hertford County, NC · 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
15/25
28 declarations (1.2x state county average of 24)
Major Disaster Share High
13/25
14 of 28 declarations are major disasters (50%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Hertford County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Hertford 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
50%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
68
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Hertford 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 High | roughly once every 4 years |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 3.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.6 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 6.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 935 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 2.3 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 47 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Coastal Flooding | Very Low | an average of 3.6 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 4,063 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 15 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 16
Severe Storm 3
Tropical Storm 2
Biological 2
Snowstorm 2
Winter Storm 1
Tornado 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Hertford County's federal record, 57% 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.
Declaration Types
What DR / EM / FM mean
FEMA categorizes declarations as Major Disasters (DR), Emergencies (EM), or Fire Management Assistance (FM).
Emergency - 14 50.0%
of all 28 declarations
Major Disaster - 14 50.0%
of all 28 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 2 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 4 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 2 | |
| 1996 | 3 | |
| 1984 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1968 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3637 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 3617 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-26 |
| 3608 | TROPICAL STORM DEBBY | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-08-06 |
| 3586 | HURRICANE IAN | EM | Hurricane | 2022-10-01 |
| 4588 | TROPICAL STORM ETA | DR | Severe Storm | 2021-03-03 |
| 4568 | HURRICANE ISAIAS | DR | Hurricane | 2020-10-14 |
| 3534 | HURRICANE ISAIAS | EM | Hurricane | 2020-08-02 |
| 4487 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3471 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 3423 | HURRICANE DORIAN | EM | Hurricane | 2019-09-03 |
| 3401 | HURRICANE FLORENCE | EM | Hurricane | 2018-09-10 |
| 4285 | HURRICANE MATTHEW | DR | Hurricane | 2016-10-10 |
| 3380 | HURRICANE MATTHEW | EM | Hurricane | 2016-10-07 |
| 4019 | HURRICANE IRENE | DR | Hurricane | 2011-08-31 |
| 3327 | HURRICANE IRENE | EM | Hurricane | 2011-08-25 |
| 1969 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-04-19 |
| 1942 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-10-14 |
| 3314 | HURRICANE EARL | EM | Hurricane | 2010-09-01 |
| 3254 | HURRICANE OPHELIA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-14 |
| 3222 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
Show 8 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1490 | HURRICANE ISABEL | DR | Hurricane | 2003-09-18 |
| 1292 | HURRICANE FLOYD MAJOR DISASTER DECLARATIONS | DR | Hurricane | 1999-09-16 |
| 3146 | HURRICANE FLOYD EMERGENCY DECLARATIONS | EM | Hurricane | 1999-09-15 |
| 1134 | HURRICANE FRAN | DR | Hurricane | 1996-09-06 |
| 1103 | WINTER STORM | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-02-23 |
| 1087 | BLIZZARD OF 96 | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-13 |
| 699 | SEVERE STORMS & TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1984-03-30 |
| 234 | SEVERE ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 1968-02-10 |
Storm Events in North Carolina
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Hertford County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 7,123 | 11 | 60 | $62.9M |
| Flash Flood | 1,881 | 105 | 6 | $2.3B |
| Hail | 1,623 | 0 | 0 | $122.5M |
| Winter Weather | 1,272 | 6 | 2 | $425.0K |
| Winter Storm | 743 | 7 | 0 | $10.7M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
159
Total Paid
$3.2M
Avg Per Claim
$19.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 68.2/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$17.2M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hurricane Relatively High
Drought Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Coastal Flooding Very Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Landslide 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: 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.
For Hertford County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hurricane is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively High), and Hurricane declarations also lead its federal record. Where the model and the declaration history agree, the reading is comparatively straightforward, the hazard is both expected and repeatedly realised.
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
Hertford County's closest FEMA peer: Beaver County, OK
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Hertford County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Hertford County shows 28 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Hertford County: 14 of 28 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Hertford County: NRI composite 68.2 (Relatively 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 Hertford County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Hertford 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: 68.2 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 28. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Hertford County's NFIP claims file (159 claims) and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records - this guide separates them from modeled NRI risk.
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 Hertford County?
The most common disaster type in Hertford County is Hurricane, with 16 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (3), Tropical Storm (2), Biological (2).
How does Hertford County's FEMA declaration record compare with the North Carolina average?
FEMA lists 28 declaration records for Hertford County. That is 17% above the North Carolina county mean of 24.0. 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 Hertford County received?
Hertford County has received 14 major disaster declarations, representing 50% of all 28 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Hertford County filed?
Hertford County has 159 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $3.2M in payments, with an average of $19.9K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Hertford County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Hertford County was 2011, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1968 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Hertford County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Hertford County, North Carolina has an overall risk score of 68.2 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very High; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $17.2M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Hertford County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Hertford County as of the latest release is Hurricane (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Moderate) and Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hurricane here at roughly once every 4 years, drawn from 73 historical events on record. The underlying methodology weighs historical event frequency against 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Hertford County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · North Carolina profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events