FEMA Records
37
Very high volume
Florida · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Highlands County, FL
37 FEMA disaster declarations (1977-2025), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 37
- FEMA declarations
- 21
- Major disasters
- 89
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Highlands County 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 8% below the Florida county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 11%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 11%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 37
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 202
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Fire Management Assistance (FM) records, which are not presidential disaster declarations, alongside Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 12055 · Highlands County 37 declarations · rank 166/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 37
- MAJOR-MID 57%
- RANK-UPPER #166
- PHOTO-FINISH Washita
- NRI-MID 89
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-BELOW -8%
Nearest declaration peer: Washita, OK (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Florida state profile
Highlands County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Highlands County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Grant · near
Grant · near
37 declarations
- Highlands · this county
Highlands · this county
37 declarations
- Marion · near
Marion · near
37 declarations
- Washita · near
Washita · near
37 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Highlands County carries 37 FEMA declaration records, ranked 166 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Highlands County ranks in the national declaration registry
Highlands County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Highlands County
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 · 2026-08-25
Highlands County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Highlands County is led by Hurricane (about $15.7M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Strong Wind carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Very High). 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 Highlands County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 202 paid claims, totaling $2.6M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $12.8K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Florida county averages 40.4 federal declaration records, while Highlands County has 37. The gap is 8% 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 89.4/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $46.7M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very High and community resilience Very Low, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Strong Wind stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 2 years here, based on 22 historical events on record.
70 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Highlands County, FL · 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) Very High
27/30
37 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
37 declarations (0.9x state county average of 40)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
21 of 37 declarations are major disasters (57%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Highlands County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Highlands 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
57%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
89
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Highlands 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Strong Wind | Very High | roughly once every 2 years |
| Hurricane | Relatively High | roughly once every 4 years |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 97 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 130 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.7 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 19 modeled event-days per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 3.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 1.3 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 9 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 3,484 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 19
Fire 5
Severe Storm 4
Tropical Storm 3
Freezing 3
Biological 2
Coastal Storm 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Highlands County's federal record, 51% 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).
Major Disaster - 21 56.8%
of all 37 declarations
Emergency - 13 35.1%
of all 37 declarations
Fire Management - 3 8.1%
of all 37 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2 | |
| 2024 | 2 | |
| 2023 | 2 | |
| 2022 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 3 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 4 | |
| 2001 | 3 | |
| 2000 | 2 | |
Show 4 earlier declaration years
| 1999 | 3 | |
| 1998 | 3 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4834 | HURRICANE MILTON | DR | Hurricane | 2024-10-11 |
| 3622 | HURRICANE MILTON | EM | Hurricane | 2024-10-07 |
| 4806 | HURRICANE DEBBY | DR | Tropical Storm | 2024-08-10 |
| 3605 | TROPICAL STORM DEBBY | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-08-03 |
| 4680 | HURRICANE NICOLE | DR | Hurricane | 2022-12-13 |
| 3587 | TROPICAL STORM NICOLE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2022-11-08 |
| 4673 | HURRICANE IAN | DR | Hurricane | 2022-09-29 |
| 3584 | TROPICAL STORM IAN | EM | Hurricane | 2022-09-24 |
| 4486 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3432 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 3419 | HURRICANE DORIAN | EM | Hurricane | 2019-08-30 |
| 4337 | HURRICANE IRMA | DR | Hurricane | 2017-09-10 |
| 3385 | HURRICANE IRMA | EM | Hurricane | 2017-09-05 |
| 3377 | HURRICANE MATTHEW | EM | Hurricane | 2016-10-06 |
| 4068 | TROPICAL STORM DEBBY | DR | Severe Storm | 2012-07-03 |
| 1785 | TROPICAL STORM FAY | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-08-24 |
| 3288 | TROPICAL STORM FAY | EM | Severe Storm | 2008-08-21 |
| 2696 | OKEECHOBEE FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2007-06-27 |
| 1609 | HURRICANE WILMA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-10-24 |
| 3220 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
Show 17 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1561 | HURRICANE JEANNE | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-26 |
| 1551 | HURRICANE IVAN | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-16 |
| 1545 | HURRICANE FRANCES | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-04 |
| 1539 | TROPICAL STORM BONNIE AND HURRICANE CHARLEY | DR | Hurricane | 2004-08-13 |
| 1393 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING ASSOCIATED WITH TROPICAL STORM GABRIELLE | DR | Coastal Storm | 2001-09-28 |
| 2354 | FL - OKEECHOBEE COMPLEX FIRE | FM | Fire | 2001-02-19 |
| 1359 | SEVERE FREEZE | DR | Freezing | 2001-02-05 |
| 1306 | FL-HURRICANE IRENE-DR-REQ | DR | Hurricane | 1999-10-20 |
| 3150 | TROPICAL STORM IRENE - FLORIDA | EM | Hurricane | 1999-10-15 |
| 1300 | HURRICANE FLOYD MAJOR DISASTER DECLARATIONS | DR | Hurricane | 1999-09-22 |
| 3139 | FL-FIRES 04/15/99 | EM | Fire | 1999-04-27 |
| 2251 | OKEECHOBEE FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 1999-04-15 |
| 3131 | HURRICANE GRORGES | EM | Hurricane | 1998-09-25 |
| 1223 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | DR | Fire | 1998-06-18 |
| 1195 | SEVERE STORMS, HIGH WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-01-06 |
| 851 | SEVERE FREEZE | DR | Freezing | 1990-01-15 |
| 526 | SEVERE WINTER WEATHER | DR | Freezing | 1977-01-31 |
Storm Events in Florida
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Highlands County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 5,243 | 17 | 45 | $24.8M |
| Hail | 1,012 | 0 | 0 | $564.6K |
| Heavy Rain | 865 | 2 | 3 | $200.0K |
| Flood | 826 | 9 | 0 | $2.0B |
| Tropical Storm | 767 | 92 | 6 | $4.9B |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
202
Total Paid
$2.6M
Avg Per Claim
$12.8K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 89.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$46.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Strong Wind Very High
Hurricane Relatively High
Lightning Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Winter Weather 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: Strong Wind
Strong Wind covers damaging non-thunderstorm, non-tornadic wind, the kind produced by steep pressure gradients and downslope events. It is a broad, frequent, low-drama hazard: roofs, signage, power lines and high-profile vehicles, spread across a wide area rather than concentrated on a path.
Worth noting for Highlands County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Strong Wind carries the highest modeled rating (Very High), 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
Highlands County's closest FEMA peer: Travis County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Highlands County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Highlands County shows 37 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Highlands County: 21 of 37 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Highlands County: NRI composite 89.4 (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 Highlands County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Highlands 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: 89.4 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 37. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Highlands County's NFIP claims file (202 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 Highlands County?
The most common disaster type in Highlands County is Hurricane, with 19 declarations. Other disaster types include Fire (5), Severe Storm (4), Tropical Storm (3).
How does Highlands County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Florida average?
The typical Florida county has 40.4 FEMA declaration records; Highlands County has 37, or 8% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 79% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Highlands County received?
Highlands County has received 21 major disaster declarations, representing 57% of all 37 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Highlands County filed?
Highlands County has 202 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $2.6M in payments, with an average of $12.8K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Highlands County?
No. In Highlands County, Strong Wind has the highest National Risk Index rating (Very High), while Hurricane leads Expected Annual Loss at about $15.7M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Highlands County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Highlands County was 2004, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1977 to 2025.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Highlands County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Highlands County, Florida has an overall risk score of 89.4 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). Social vulnerability here rates Very High, while community resilience comes in at Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $46.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Highlands County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Highlands County as of the latest release is Strong Wind (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Hurricane (Relatively High) and Lightning (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts strong wind here at roughly once every 2 years, drawn from 22 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 Highlands County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Florida profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events