FEMA Records
26
High volume
Tennessee · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
26 FEMA disaster declarations (1975-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Humphreys County. Its 26 FEMA declarations are 21% above the Tennessee county mean and exceed the count for 75% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 48%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
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.
Humphreys County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
26 Top 25% higher than 75% 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
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Humphreys County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $4.8M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), while Earthquake 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.
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 235 paid claims, totaling $15.7M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $66.7K 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. Humphreys County's 26 federal records stand 21% above the Tennessee county mean of 21.4. 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's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 48.3/100 for this county (Relatively Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $12.6M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively High) and community resilience (Relatively Moderate) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Earthquake, 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 roughly once every 180 years here.
The FEMA register is busy by both local and national comparisons. It contains 26 entries for Humphreys County, including 22 Major Disaster records, 21% above the Tennessee county mean. Across the 51-year span, that works out to 0.5 declarations a year. Severe Storm leads the file with 16 entries. Declaration type records the federal action taken, not every assistance program approved.
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Humphreys 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
26 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.3x national county average)
26 declarations (1.2x state county average of 21)
22 of 26 declarations are major disasters (85%)
6 different disaster types declared in Humphreys County
Activity Band
High
vs. Tennessee Avg
+21%
State avg: 21.4
vs. National Avg
+25%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.5
Over 51 years
Each axis: NRI risk rating (Very Low-Very High) on a 0-100 scale. Rounder = broad exposure; spiky = one or two hazards dominate.
FEMA Records
26
High volume
Major Disaster share
85%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
48
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 180 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 4.3 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.3 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | an average of 1.8 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 58 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 5.8 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 54 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 9.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 3.2 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 7,194 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 5.5 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Humphreys County's record, 62% 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.
FEMA categorizes declarations as Major Disasters (DR), Emergencies (EM), or Fire Management Assistance (FM).
of all 26 declarations
of all 26 declarations
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | |
| 2025 | 2 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 4 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 3 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 2 | |
| 1999 | 2 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 1 | |
How the 26 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 26 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 |
| 4712 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADO | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-05-17 |
| 4609 | SEVERE STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2021-08-23 |
| 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 |
| 4471 | SEVERE STORM AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2019-12-06 |
| 4427 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2019-04-17 |
| 1978 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-05-09 |
| 1974 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND ASSOCIATED FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-05-01 |
| 1965 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-03-31 |
| 1909 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-05-04 |
| 1839 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-05-15 |
| 3217 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1464 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-05-08 |
| 1456 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-03-20 |
| 1275 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-05-12 |
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1262 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND HIGH WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-01-19 |
| 1215 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-04-20 |
| 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 |
| 910 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1991-06-21 |
| 459 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-03-22 |
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Humphreys 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 NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
Total Claims
235
Total Paid
$15.7M
Avg Per Claim
$66.7K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 48.3/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$12.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) Ratings reflect relative scores among all US counties. Data: hazards.fema.gov/nri
Earthquake is the model's clearest example of a hazard with no season and no warning. Its expected loss is driven less by how often shaking occurs than by how much of the building stock predates modern seismic codes, so exposure can be high in places where nothing has happened for a long time.
Worth noting for Humphreys County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Earthquake 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
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Humphreys County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Humphreys County shows 26 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Humphreys County: 22 of 26 of its declarations are Major.
Humphreys County: NRI composite 48.3 (Relatively Low).
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 Humphreys County - capture-dated entries only.
Understanding disaster data
Humphreys County's NFIP claims file (235 claims) and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records - this guide separates them from modeled NRI risk.
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 Humphreys County
Humphreys County, TN has 26 federal declaration records, 21% more than the Tennessee county mean of 21; its history sits in PlainHazard's high activity band.
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.
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.