FEMA Records
20
Above median
Georgia · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
20 FEMA disaster declarations (1977-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Jeff Davis County. Its 20 FEMA declarations are 15% above the Georgia county mean and exceed the count for 46% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 28%, 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 13161 · Jeff Davis County 20 declarations · rank 1596/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
Nearest declaration peer: Monona, IA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Georgia state profile
FEMA declaration records among Jeff Davis County and nearest peers by total count
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
Cleveland · near
20 declarations
Jeff Davis · this county
20 declarations
Monona · near
20 declarations
Tallapoosa · near
20 declarations
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Jeff Davis County carries 20 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1596 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Jeff Davis County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Jeff Davis County
20 46th percentile higher than 46% 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
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 28.2/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $6.4M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Very High social-vulnerability score and Very Low community-resilience score. 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 4 years here, based on 60 historical events on record.
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 11 claims and $48.3K 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. Jeff Davis County's 20 federal records stand 15% above the Georgia county mean of 17.4. 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.
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Jeff Davis County, GA · 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
20 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
20 declarations (1.2x state county average of 17)
11 of 20 declarations are major disasters (55%)
7 different disaster types declared in Jeff Davis County
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
20
Above median
Major Disaster share
55%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
28
Very Low
Source: 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 4 years |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 23 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 617 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,501 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 69 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 3.9 modeled event-days per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 1.3 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 1.9 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 19 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 11 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Jeff Davis County's federal record, 45% 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.
FEMA categorizes declarations as Major Disasters (DR), Emergencies (EM), or Fire Management Assistance (FM).
of all 20 declarations
of all 20 declarations
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 4 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 3 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
How the 20 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 20 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4830 | HURRICANE HELENE | DR | Hurricane | 2024-09-30 |
| 3616 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-26 |
| 4821 | TROPICAL STORM DEBBY | DR | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-24 |
| 3607 | HURRICANE DEBBY | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-08-05 |
| 4738 | HURRICANE IDALIA | DR | Hurricane | 2023-09-07 |
| 4501 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-29 |
| 3464 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4400 | HURRICANE MICHAEL | DR | Hurricane | 2018-10-14 |
| 3406 | HURRICANE MICHAEL | EM | Hurricane | 2018-10-10 |
| 4338 | HURRICANE IRMA | DR | Hurricane | 2017-09-15 |
| 3387 | HURRICANE IRMA | EM | Hurricane | 2017-09-08 |
| 3379 | HURRICANE MATTHEW | EM | Hurricane | 2016-10-06 |
| 4259 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-02-26 |
| 1833 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-04-23 |
| 3218 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1560 | TROPICAL STORM FRANCES | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-24 |
| 1209 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-03-11 |
| 3097 | SEVERE SNOWFALL, WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-15 |
| 897 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1991-03-15 |
| 3044 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-07-20 |
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Jeff Davis County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 9,617 | 15 | 75 | $65.4M |
| Drought | 1,363 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Hail | 1,257 | 0 | 0 | $61.8M |
| Flash Flood | 1,154 | 0 | 3 | $29.3M |
| Tropical Storm | 655 | 28 | 19 | $855.3M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
Total Claims
11
Total Paid
$48.3K
Avg Per Claim
$4.4K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 28.2/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$6.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) Ratings reflect relative scores among all US counties. Data: hazards.fema.gov/nri
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 Jeff Davis County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hurricane is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Moderate), 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
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Jeff Davis County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Jeff Davis County shows 20 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Jeff Davis County: 11 of 20 of its declarations are Major.
Jeff Davis County: NRI composite 28.2 (Very 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 Jeff Davis County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Jeff Davis 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.
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA NRI score. This county: 28.2 (Very Low).
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 20. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Most disaster-prone counties
With 20 FEMA declarations, Jeff Davis County sits in the high-volume declaration band - see how that count ranks against other U.S. counties.
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 Jeff Davis County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Georgia profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events