FEMA Records
18
Below median
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Jeff Davis County, TX
18 FEMA disaster declarations (1998-2021), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 18
- FEMA declarations
- 6
- Major disasters
- 3
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Jeff Davis County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 18 declarations, more than 37% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 14% below the Texas county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 3%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 3%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 18
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 10
- fire declarations, the most common hazard here
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 48243 · Jeff Davis County 18 declarations · rank 2016/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 18
- MAJOR-LIGHT 33%
- RANK-LOWER #2,016
- PHOTO-FINISH Monroe
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-BELOW -14%
Nearest declaration peer: Monroe, TN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Texas state profile
Jeff Davis County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Jeff Davis County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Brooke · near 18
Brooke · near
18 declarations
- Jeff Davis · this county 18
Jeff Davis · this county
18 declarations
- Mecklenburg · near 18
Mecklenburg · near
18 declarations
- Monroe · near 18
Monroe · near
18 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Jeff Davis County carries 18 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2016 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Jeff Davis County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Jeff Davis County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Jeff Davis County
18 37th percentile higher than 37% 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
Jeff Davis County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Jeff Davis County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits at the very bottom of FEMA's National Risk Index nationally, a composite score of 2.9/100 (rated Very Low). Projected losses are minimal, Expected Annual Loss reads Very Low (roughly $1.9M in annualized losses), and the county's exposure is shaped by a Relatively High social-vulnerability profile and Very Low community resilience. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Wildfire, 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 78 years here.
Reading the federal records together
No paid-claim row for this county appears in the NFIP county table used by PlainHazard. That absence is not evidence that flooding never occurred: the register observes claims under federal flood-insurance policies, not uninsured losses, emergency reports, or every flood outside the program. The FEMA declaration history below is therefore the available federal-action record on this page.
Start with the state benchmark: a Texas county averages 20.9 federal declaration records, while Jeff Davis County has 18. The gap is 14% 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.
45 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Jeff Davis County, TX · 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) Moderate
13/30
18 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
18 declarations (0.9x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
8/25
6 of 18 declarations are major disasters (33%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Jeff Davis County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Jeff Davis 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
33%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
3
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Jeff Davis 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 78 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 504 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 116 modeled event-days per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 7.1 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 5.2 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 58 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 162 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 10
Hurricane 3
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Severe Storm 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Jeff Davis County's record, 56% of its declarations. Wildfire is the one hazard here with its own dedicated federal instrument: the Fire Management Assistance Grant, which appears in this data as an FM record. An FMAG can be authorised while a fire is still burning, on a timescale of hours, because its purpose is to reimburse the cost of fighting a fire that threatens to become a major disaster.
That distinction matters when comparing counties. An FM declaration is not a presidential major disaster declaration and does not carry the same assistance programmes, so a fire-heavy county's total is not directly comparable with a hurricane-heavy county's total unless the declaration types are separated, which is why they are listed separately on this page.
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 - 6 33.3%
of all 18 declarations
Emergency - 6 33.3%
of all 18 declarations
Fire Management - 6 33.3%
of all 18 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 3 | |
| 2008 | 3 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 18 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 18 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4586 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-19 |
| 3554 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-14 |
| 4485 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3458 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 5237 | MCDANNALD FIRE | FM | Fire | 2018-05-02 |
| 2976 | LIVERMORE RANCH FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2012-04-30 |
| 1999 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2011-07-01 |
| 2914 | TEJANO CANYON FIRE | FM | Fire | 2011-06-02 |
| 2885 | ROCKHOUSE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2011-04-09 |
| 2768 | HUGHES RANCH FIRE | FM | Fire | 2008-06-04 |
| 3284 | WILDFIRES | EM | Fire | 2008-03-14 |
| 2750 | ARABELLA FIRE | FM | Fire | 2008-03-12 |
| 1624 | EXTREME WILDFIRE THREAT | DR | Fire | 2006-01-11 |
| 1606 | HURRICANE RITA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-09-24 |
| 3261 | HURRICANE RITA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-21 |
| 3216 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-02 |
| 3142 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARDS | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
| 1239 | TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-26 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Jeff Davis County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 14,072 | 0 | 15 | $7.4B |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 10,293 | 41 | 141 | $369.9M |
| Drought | 7,032 | 0 | 0 | $86.0K |
| Flash Flood | 4,728 | 338 | 24 | $47.6B |
| Heat | 4,079 | 119 | 405 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 2.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$1.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Avalanche Very Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Drought Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Hail Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Strong Wind 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: Wildfire
Wildfire risk in the model reflects fuel, terrain, weather and how much development sits in the wildland-urban interface. It is one of the few hazards where the exposure is materially changed by land management and building choices, not only by where the county happens to be.
For Jeff Davis County the two measures on this page point the same way: Wildfire is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Low), and Fire 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
Jeff Davis County's closest FEMA peer: Liberty County, GA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Jeff Davis County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Jeff Davis County shows 18 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Jeff Davis County: 6 of 18 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Jeff Davis County: NRI composite 2.9 (Very 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 Jeff Davis County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
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.
Similar NRI composite
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA NRI score. This county: 2.9 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 18. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 18 FEMA declarations, Jeff Davis 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 Jeff Davis County?
The most common disaster type in Jeff Davis County is Fire, with 10 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (3), Severe Ice Storm (2), Biological (2).
How does Jeff Davis County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
The typical Texas county has 20.9 FEMA declaration records; Jeff Davis County has 18, or 14% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 13% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Jeff Davis County received?
Jeff Davis County has received 6 major disaster declarations, representing 33% of all 18 disaster declarations.
What was the worst year for disasters in Jeff Davis County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Jeff Davis County was 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1998 to 2021.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Jeff Davis County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Jeff Davis County, Texas has an overall risk score of 2.9 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively High and community resilience is Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $1.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Jeff Davis County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Jeff Davis County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Landslide (Very Low) and Avalanche (Very Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 78 years. These scores are based on FEMA's analysis of historical event frequency, 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.
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 · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events