FEMA Records
11
Low volume
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Lipscomb County, TX
11 FEMA disaster declarations (1998-2021), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 11
- FEMA declarations
- 5
- Major disasters
- 28
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Lipscomb County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 11 declarations, more than 12% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 47% below the Texas county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 28%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 28%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 11
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 6
- 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 48295 · Lipscomb County 11 declarations · rank 2818/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 11
- MAJOR-LIGHT 45%
- RANK-LOWER #2,818
- PHOTO-FINISH Meeker
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-BELOW -47%
Nearest declaration peer: Meeker, MN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Texas state profile
Lipscomb County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Lipscomb County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Davis · near 11
Davis · near
11 declarations
- Lipscomb · this county 11
Lipscomb · this county
11 declarations
- Meeker · near 11
Meeker · near
11 declarations
- Wasatch · near 11
Wasatch · near
11 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Lipscomb County carries 11 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2818 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Lipscomb County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Lipscomb County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Lipscomb County
11 12th percentile higher than 12% 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
Lipscomb County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Lipscomb County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 27.9/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $8.7M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Relatively Moderate social-vulnerability score and Very Low community-resilience score. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Drought stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 89 modeled event-days per year here, based on 2,450 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 6 claims and $237.8K 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 Texas county averages 20.9 federal declaration records, while Lipscomb County has 11. The gap is 47% 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.
39 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Lipscomb 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
8/30
11 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.5x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
7/25
11 declarations (0.5x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
11/25
5 of 11 declarations are major disasters (45%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Lipscomb County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Lipscomb 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
45%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
28
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Lipscomb 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drought | Relatively High | 89 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 71 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 10 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 2.8 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 3.2 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 7.6 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,181 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 47 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 1.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 10 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 3
Hurricane 3
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Severe Storm 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Lipscomb County's record, 27% 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).
Emergency - 6 54.5%
of all 11 declarations
Major Disaster - 5 45.5%
of all 11 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 11 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 11 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 |
| 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 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Lipscomb 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
6
Total Paid
$237.8K
Avg Per Claim
$39.6K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 27.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$8.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Hail Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Riverine Flooding 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: Drought
Drought is the slowest of the modeled hazards and the least visible: it does its damage to agriculture, water supply and soil over seasons rather than hours, so it rarely produces the kind of single-day damage that drives a disaster declaration. FEMA scores it in event-days per year rather than discrete events for exactly that reason.
Worth noting for Lipscomb County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively High), while the county's declaration history is led by Fire. 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
Lipscomb County's closest FEMA peer: Tooele County, UT
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Lipscomb County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Lipscomb County shows 11 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Lipscomb County: 5 of 11 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Lipscomb County: NRI composite 27.9 (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 Lipscomb County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Lipscomb 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: 27.9 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 11. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 11 FEMA declarations, Lipscomb 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 Lipscomb County?
The most common disaster type in Lipscomb County is Fire, with 3 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (3), Severe Ice Storm (2), Biological (2).
How does Lipscomb County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
The typical Texas county has 20.9 FEMA declaration records; Lipscomb County has 11, or 47% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 47% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Lipscomb County received?
Lipscomb County has received 5 major disaster declarations, representing 45% of all 11 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Lipscomb County filed?
Lipscomb County has 6 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $237.8K in payments, with an average of $39.6K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Lipscomb County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Lipscomb 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 Lipscomb County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Lipscomb County, Texas has an overall risk score of 27.9 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Moderate and community resilience is Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $8.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Lipscomb County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Lipscomb County is Drought (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Relatively Low) and Ice Storm (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 89 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 2,450 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 Lipscomb County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events