FEMA Records
14
Low volume
Georgia · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Lee County, GA
14 FEMA disaster declarations (1966-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 14
- FEMA declarations
- 8
- Major disasters
- 29
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Lee County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 14 declarations, more than 20% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 19% below the Georgia county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 29%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 29%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 14
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 700
- 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 13177 · Lee County 14 declarations · rank 2514/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 14
- MAJOR-MID 57%
- RANK-LOWER #2,514
- PHOTO-FINISH Pulaski
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-BELOW -19%
Nearest declaration peer: Pulaski, IL (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Georgia state profile
Lee County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Lee County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Franklin (city) · near 14
Franklin (city) · near
14 declarations
- Harris · near 14
Harris · near
14 declarations
- Lee · this county 14
Lee · this county
14 declarations
- Pulaski · near 14
Pulaski · near
14 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Lee County carries 14 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2514 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Lee County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Lee County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Lee County
14 20th percentile higher than 20% 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
Lee County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Lee County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $5.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Hurricane 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.
What does Lee County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 700 claims and $16.7M in payments. PlainHazard labels 500 or more claims a heavy registry record; that is a reporting bucket, not an official FEMA risk grade. The average paid claim was $23.9K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
Start with the state benchmark: a Georgia county averages 17.4 federal declaration records, while Lee County has 14. The gap is 19% 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's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 29.4/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $12.3M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Very Low social-vulnerability score and Relatively High community-resilience score. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Hurricane, 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 7 years here, based on 44 historical events on record.
52 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Lee 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
FEMA Declarations (1953–present) Moderate
10/30
14 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25
14 declarations (0.8x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
8 of 14 declarations are major disasters (57%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Lee County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Lee 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
29
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Lee 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 44 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 4 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,437 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 69 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 725 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 4.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 2.1 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 1.8 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 19 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 5
Severe Storm 3
Biological 2
Tropical Storm 1
Tornado 1
Drought 1
Flood 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Lee County's federal record, 36% 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 - 8 57.1%
of all 14 declarations
Emergency - 6 42.9%
of all 14 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1966 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 14 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 14 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3616 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-26 |
| 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 |
| 1833 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-04-23 |
| 3218 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1209 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-03-11 |
| 1033 | TORNADOES, FLOODING TORRENTIAL RAIN(TROP STORM ALBERTO) | DR | Tornado | 1994-07-07 |
| 857 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNAODES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-02-23 |
| 3044 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-07-20 |
| 214 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1966-03-14 |
Storm Events in Georgia
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Lee 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
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
700
Total Paid
$16.7M
Avg Per Claim
$23.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 29.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$12.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hurricane Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Hail Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Landslide 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: Hurricane
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 Lee County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hurricane is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Low), 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
Lee County's closest FEMA peer: Genesee County, MI
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Lee County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Lee County shows 14 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Lee County: 8 of 14 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Lee County: NRI composite 29.4 (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 Lee County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Lee 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: 29.4 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 14. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Lee County's NFIP claims file (700 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 Lee County?
The most common disaster type in Lee County is Hurricane, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (3), Biological (2), Tropical Storm (1).
How does Lee County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Georgia average?
The typical Georgia county has 17.4 FEMA declaration records; Lee County has 14, or 19% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 32% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Lee County received?
Lee County has received 8 major disaster declarations, representing 57% of all 14 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Lee County filed?
Lee County has 700 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $16.7M in payments, with an average of $23.9K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Lee County?
No. In Lee County, Hurricane has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $5.3M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Lee County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Lee County was 2017, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1966 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Lee County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Lee County, Georgia has an overall risk score of 29.4 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $12.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Lee County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Lee County as of the latest release is Hurricane (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Moderate) and Tornado (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hurricane here at roughly once every 7 years, drawn from 44 historical events on record. 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.
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 Lee County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Georgia profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events