FEMA Records
23
Above median
Mississippi · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Lowndes County, MS
23 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 23
- FEMA declarations
- 19
- Major disasters
- 81
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Lowndes County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 23 declarations, more than 62% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 11% below the Mississippi county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 19%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 19%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 23
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 1,186
- 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 28087 · Lowndes County 23 declarations · rank 1204/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 23
- MAJOR-HEAVY 83%
- RANK-LOWER #1,204
- PHOTO-FINISH Roanoke
- NRI-LOW 81
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -11%
Nearest declaration peer: Roanoke, VA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Mississippi state profile
Lowndes County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Lowndes County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Amherst · near 23
Amherst · near
23 declarations
- Lowndes · this county 23
Lowndes · this county
23 declarations
- Roanoke · near 23
Roanoke · near
23 declarations
- Vance · near 23
Vance · near
23 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Lowndes County carries 23 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1204 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Lowndes County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Lowndes County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Lowndes County
23 Top 38% higher than 62% 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
Lowndes County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Lowndes County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $13.7M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), while Tornado 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 Lowndes County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 1,186 claims and $7.2M 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 $6.1K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
Start with the state benchmark: a Mississippi county averages 25.9 federal declaration records, while Lowndes County has 23. The gap is 11% 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 sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 80.9/100 (Relatively Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $33.6M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively High and community resilience Relatively High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Tornado stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 2 years here, based on 46 historical events on record.
67 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Lowndes County, MS · 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
23 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.1x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
23 declarations (0.9x state county average of 26)
Major Disaster Share Very High
21/25
19 of 23 declarations are major disasters (83%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Lowndes County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Lowndes 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
83%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
81
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Lowndes 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tornado | Relatively High | roughly once every 2 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively High | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 311 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 12 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 2 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 66 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.7 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.5 times per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 15 years |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 15 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 2,767 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 2.8 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 10
Hurricane 6
Winter Storm 2
Biological 2
Severe Ice Storm 1
Tornado 1
Flood 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Lowndes County's record, 43% of its declarations. In FEMA's vocabulary this covers convective weather: thunderstorm straight-line winds, large hail, and the multi-day outbreaks that often carry embedded tornadoes. Activity is heaviest in spring and summer, though the season varies by region.
These events behave differently from a hurricane on paper. Damage tends to be distributed along a storm track rather than concentrated on a coastline, and a declaration typically follows an outbreak that crossed several counties over a few days, not a single point of impact. Because the qualifying threshold is the cost of uninsured public and individual losses rather than storm intensity, two similar storms can produce a declaration in one year and none in another.
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 - 19 82.6%
of all 23 declarations
Emergency - 4 17.4%
of all 23 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 2 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 3 | |
| 1983 | 1 | |
Show 2 earlier declaration years
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 23 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 23 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4899 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Winter Storm | 2026-02-06 |
| 3640 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4626 | HURRICANE IDA | DR | Hurricane | 2021-10-22 |
| 3569 | HURRICANE IDA | EM | Hurricane | 2021-08-28 |
| 4528 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-05 |
| 3474 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4429 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2019-04-23 |
| 4175 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2014-04-30 |
| 3291 | HURRICANE GUSTAV | EM | Hurricane | 2008-08-30 |
| 1604 | HURRICANE KATRINA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-08-29 |
| 1594 | HURRICANE DENNIS | DR | Hurricane | 2005-07-10 |
| 1550 | HURRICANE IVAN | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-15 |
| 1470 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND HIGH WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-05-23 |
| 1443 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-11-14 |
| 1360 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2001-02-23 |
| 1265 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, ICE AND FREEZING RAIN | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 1999-01-25 |
| 967 | WIND STORMS, TORNADOES & HAIL | DR | Tornado | 1992-10-17 |
| 906 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1991-05-17 |
| 895 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1991-03-05 |
| 888 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1991-01-03 |
Show 3 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 683 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1983-06-01 |
| 577 | STORMS, TORNADOES, FLOODS | DR | Severe Storm | 1979-04-16 |
| 368 | HEAVY RAINS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1973-03-27 |
Storm Events in Mississippi
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Lowndes County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 5,557 | 17 | 60 | $93.9M |
| Flash Flood | 1,551 | 6 | 9 | $83.6M |
| Hail | 1,411 | 0 | 0 | $90.1M |
| Heat | 1,340 | 3 | 0 | $0 |
| Tornado | 1,097 | 68 | 610 | $562.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
1,186
Total Paid
$7.2M
Avg Per Claim
$6.1K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 80.9/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$33.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Tornado Relatively High
Cold Wave Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively High
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Moderate
Landslide Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Winter Weather 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: Tornado
Tornado exposure is the most spatially concentrated in the model: total destruction along a narrow corridor with intact property either side. County-level averages therefore understate severity badly for anyone actually in the path, and overstate it for everyone else.
For Lowndes County the two measures on this page point the same way: Tornado is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively High), and Severe Storm 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
Lowndes County's closest FEMA peer: Spink County, SD
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Lowndes County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Lowndes County shows 23 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Lowndes County: 19 of 23 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Lowndes County: NRI composite 80.9 (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 Lowndes County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Lowndes 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: 80.9 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 23. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Lowndes County's NFIP claims file (1,186 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 Lowndes County?
The most common disaster type in Lowndes County is Severe Storm, with 10 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (6), Winter Storm (2), Biological (2).
How does Lowndes County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Mississippi average?
The typical Mississippi county has 25.9 FEMA declaration records; Lowndes County has 23, or 11% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 11% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Lowndes County received?
Lowndes County has received 19 major disaster declarations, representing 83% of all 23 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Lowndes County filed?
Lowndes County has 1,186 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $7.2M in payments, with an average of $6.1K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Lowndes County?
No. In Lowndes County, Tornado has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $13.7M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Lowndes County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Lowndes County was 1991, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Lowndes County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Lowndes County, Mississippi has an overall risk score of 80.9 out of 100 (Relatively Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively High, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $33.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Lowndes County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Lowndes County is Tornado (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Cold Wave (Relatively High) and Earthquake (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts tornado here at roughly once every 2 years, drawn from 46 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 Lowndes County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Mississippi profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events