FEMA Records
22
Above median
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Lee County, TX
22 FEMA disaster declarations (1988-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 22
- FEMA declarations
- 15
- Major disasters
- 40
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Lee County. Its 22 FEMA declarations are 5% above the Texas county mean and exceed the count for 57% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 40%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 40%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 22
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 25
- 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 48287 · Lee County 22 declarations · rank 1274/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 22
- MAJOR-MID 68%
- RANK-LOWER #1,274
- PHOTO-FINISH Hardy
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-ABOVE +5%
Nearest declaration peer: Hardy, WV (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Texas state profile
Lee County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Lee County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Hardy · near 22
Hardy · near
22 declarations
- Lee · this county 22
Lee · this county
22 declarations
- Prairie · near 22
Prairie · near
22 declarations
- St. Francis · near 22
St. Francis · near
22 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Lee County carries 22 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1274 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Lee County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Lee County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Lee County
22 Top 43% higher than 57% 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
What does Lee County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 40.5/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $11.7M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively Moderate) and community resilience (Relatively Low) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Cold Wave carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 2 years here, based on 12 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 25 claims and $648.0K 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. Lee County's 22 federal records stand 5% above the Texas county mean of 20.9. 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.
66 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Lee 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) High
16/30
22 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.1x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
13/25
22 declarations (1.1x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share High
17/25
15 of 22 declarations are major disasters (68%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
9 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
68%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
40
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 62 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 14 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 3 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 10 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 901 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 54 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 3.1 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 1.6 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | an average of 1.7 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,222 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 12 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 5
Fire 5
Flood 3
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Severe Storm 2
Winter Storm 1
Drought 1
Tornado 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Lee County's federal record, 23% 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 - 15 68.2%
of all 22 declarations
Emergency - 7 31.8%
of all 22 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1988 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 22 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 22 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4798 | HURRICANE BERYL | DR | Hurricane | 2024-07-09 |
| 4781 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2024-05-17 |
| 4705 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Winter Storm | 2023-04-21 |
| 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 |
| 4332 | HURRICANE HARVEY | DR | Hurricane | 2017-08-25 |
| 4272 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2016-06-11 |
| 4223 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-05-29 |
| 4029 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2011-09-09 |
| 1999 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2011-07-01 |
| 3284 | WILDFIRES | EM | Fire | 2008-03-14 |
| 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 |
| 1041 | SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1994-10-18 |
Show 2 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3113 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Drought | 1993-09-10 |
| 802 | SEVERE STORMS & TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1987-11-20 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Lee 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
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
25
Total Paid
$648.0K
Avg Per Claim
$25.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 40.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$11.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Earthquake 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: Cold Wave
Cold Wave measures exposure to extreme cold rather than to snow. Its harm is concentrated in health effects, burst infrastructure and energy demand spikes, and it falls hardest where the building stock and the grid were not built with sustained cold in mind.
Worth noting for Lee County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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
Lee County's closest FEMA peer: Prairie County, AR
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 22 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Lee County: 15 of 22 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Lee County: NRI composite 40.5 (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: 40.5 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 22. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 22 FEMA declarations, Lee 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 Lee County?
The most common disaster type in Lee County is Hurricane, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Fire (5), Flood (3), Severe Ice Storm (2).
How does Lee County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
FEMA lists 22 declaration records for Lee County. That is 5% above the Texas county mean of 20.9. Its count is also 6% above the national county mean of 20.7. A larger declaration history records more federal actions; it is not a forecast of the county's next hazard.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Lee County received?
Lee County has received 15 major disaster declarations, representing 68% of all 22 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Lee County filed?
Lee County has 25 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $648.0K in payments, with an average of $25.9K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Lee County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Lee County was 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1988 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Lee County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Lee County, Texas has an overall risk score of 40.5 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Moderate; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $11.7M 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 Cold Wave (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Moderate) and Hurricane (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at roughly once every 2 years, drawn from 12 historical events on record. The underlying methodology weighs historical event frequency against 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 · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events