FEMA Records
24
Above median
South Carolina · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Lancaster County, SC
24 FEMA disaster declarations (1977-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 24
- FEMA declarations
- 10
- Major disasters
- 79
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Lancaster County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 24 declarations, more than 66% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 6% below the South Carolina county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 21%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 21%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 24
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 34
- 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 45057 · Lancaster County 24 declarations · rank 1098/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 24
- MAJOR-LIGHT 42%
- RANK-LOWER #1,098
- PHOTO-FINISH Eddy
- NRI-LOW 79
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-BELOW -6%
Nearest declaration peer: Eddy, ND (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · South Carolina state profile
Lancaster County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Lancaster County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Deuel · near 24
Deuel · near
24 declarations
- Eddy · near 24
Eddy · near
24 declarations
- Lancaster · this county 24
Lancaster · this county
24 declarations
- Wichita · near 24
Wichita · near
24 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Lancaster County carries 24 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1098 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Lancaster County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Lancaster County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Lancaster County
24 Top 34% higher than 66% 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
Lancaster County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Lancaster County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $20.5M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Ice Storm carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively 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 Lancaster County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 79.4/100 (Relatively Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $40.1M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Moderate and community resilience Relatively Moderate, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Ice Storm stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 1.5 times per year here, based on 100 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 34 claims and $513.7K 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.
Start with the state benchmark: a South Carolina county averages 25.6 federal declaration records, while Lancaster County has 24. The gap is 6% 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.
59 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Lancaster County, SC · 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
17/30
24 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.2x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
24 declarations (0.9x state county average of 26)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
10/25
10 of 24 declarations are major disasters (42%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Lancaster County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Lancaster 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
42%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
79
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Lancaster 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 4.7 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 439 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 54 times per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 3 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 4.2 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 2,704 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 3.1 times per year |
| Drought | Very Low | 21 modeled event-days per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 13
Tropical Storm 2
Biological 2
Flood 2
Severe Storm 2
Winter Storm 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
Drought 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Lancaster County's federal record, 54% 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 58.3%
of all 24 declarations
Major Disaster - 10 41.7%
of all 24 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 3 | |
| 2023 | 2 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 3 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 2 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1989 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 24 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 24 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3632 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-23 |
| 4829 | HURRICANE HELENE | DR | Hurricane | 2024-09-29 |
| 3619 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-26 |
| 3606 | HURRICANE DEBBY | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-08-05 |
| 3597 | HURRICANE IDALIA | EM | Hurricane | 2023-08-31 |
| 4677 | HURRICANE IAN | DR | Hurricane | 2022-11-21 |
| 3585 | HURRICANE IAN | EM | Hurricane | 2022-09-29 |
| 4492 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-27 |
| 3470 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 3421 | HURRICANE DORIAN | EM | Hurricane | 2019-09-01 |
| 4394 | HURRICANE FLORENCE | DR | Hurricane | 2018-09-16 |
| 3400 | HURRICANE FLORENCE | EM | Hurricane | 2018-09-10 |
| 4346 | HURRICANE IRMA | DR | Hurricane | 2017-10-16 |
| 3386 | HURRICANE IRMA | EM | Hurricane | 2017-09-07 |
| 3378 | HURRICANE MATTHEW | EM | Hurricane | 2016-10-06 |
| 4241 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2015-10-05 |
| 3373 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | EM | Severe Storm | 2015-10-03 |
| 3369 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2014-02-12 |
| 3233 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1566 | TROPICAL STORM FRANCES | DR | Hurricane | 2004-10-07 |
Show 4 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1313 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-01-31 |
| 881 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1990-10-22 |
| 843 | HURRICANE HUGO | DR | Hurricane | 1989-09-22 |
| 3047 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-08-04 |
Storm Events in South Carolina
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Lancaster County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 5,845 | 11 | 40 | $11.4M |
| Hail | 1,207 | 0 | 0 | $25.1M |
| Flash Flood | 954 | 20 | 35 | $150.4M |
| Strong Wind | 395 | 4 | 13 | $711.8K |
| Tornado | 320 | 9 | 110 | $127.1M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
34
Total Paid
$513.7K
Avg Per Claim
$15.1K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 79.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$40.1M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Ice Storm Relatively High
Strong Wind Relatively High
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Drought 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: Ice Storm
Ice storms load power lines and tree limbs with accumulating freezing rain until they fail. The characteristic cost is infrastructure and multi-day power loss across a wide area rather than structural damage to buildings, which is why their consequences often outlast the weather that caused them.
Worth noting for Lancaster County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Ice Storm carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively 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
Lancaster County's closest FEMA peer: Coconino County, AZ
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Lancaster County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Lancaster County shows 24 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Lancaster County: 10 of 24 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Lancaster County: NRI composite 79.4 (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 Lancaster County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Lancaster 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: 79.4 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 24. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 24 FEMA declarations, Lancaster 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 Lancaster County?
The most common disaster type in Lancaster County is Hurricane, with 13 declarations. Other disaster types include Tropical Storm (2), Biological (2), Flood (2).
How does Lancaster County's FEMA declaration record compare with the South Carolina average?
The typical South Carolina county has 25.6 FEMA declaration records; Lancaster County has 24, or 6% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 16% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Lancaster County received?
Lancaster County has received 10 major disaster declarations, representing 42% of all 24 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Lancaster County filed?
Lancaster County has 34 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $513.7K in payments, with an average of $15.1K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Lancaster County?
No. In Lancaster County, Ice Storm has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $20.5M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Lancaster County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Lancaster County was 2018, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1977 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Lancaster County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Lancaster County, South Carolina has an overall risk score of 79.4 out of 100 (Relatively Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Moderate, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $40.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Lancaster County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Lancaster County as of the latest release is Ice Storm (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Strong Wind (Relatively High) and Tornado (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts ice storm here at an average of 1.5 times per year, drawn from 100 historical events on record. FEMA derives these ratings from historical event frequency, the assets exposed, and the community's vulnerability profile.
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 Lancaster County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · South Carolina profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events