FEMA Records
20
Above median
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Lubbock County, TX
20 FEMA disaster declarations (1970-2021), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively High. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 20
- FEMA declarations
- 11
- Major disasters
- 96
- NRI risk · Relatively High
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Lubbock County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 20 declarations, more than 46% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 4% below the Texas county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 4%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 4%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively High
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 20
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 346
- 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 48303 · Lubbock County 20 declarations · rank 1628/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-HIGH · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 20
- MAJOR-MID 55%
- RANK-LOWER #1,628
- PHOTO-FINISH Monona
- NRI-HIGH 96
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-BELOW -4%
Nearest declaration peer: Monona, IA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Texas state profile
Lubbock County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Lubbock County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Cleveland · near 20
Cleveland · near
20 declarations
- Lubbock · this county 20
Lubbock · this county
20 declarations
- Monona · near 20
Monona · near
20 declarations
- Tallapoosa · near 20
Tallapoosa · near
20 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Lubbock County carries 20 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1628 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Lubbock County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Lubbock County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Lubbock County
20 46th percentile higher than 46% 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
Lubbock County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Lubbock County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 346 paid claims, totaling $2.7M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $7.9K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Texas county averages 20.9 federal declaration records, while Lubbock County has 20. The gap is 4% 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 96.2/100 (Relatively High). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively High (roughly $213.5M 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, Drought stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 76 modeled event-days per year here, based on 2,681 historical events on record.
58 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Lubbock 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
14/30
20 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
20 declarations (1.0x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
11 of 20 declarations are major disasters (55%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Lubbock County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Lubbock 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
55%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
96
Relatively High
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Lubbock 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 | Very High | 76 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Very High | an average of 4.9 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Very High | an average of 2.2 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively High | roughly once every 2 years |
| Winter Weather | Very High | an average of 7.4 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively High | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.3 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | roughly once every 2 years |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 585 years |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 48 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 2.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3,401 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 133 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 6
Severe Storm 5
Fire 3
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Drought 1
Tornado 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Lubbock County's federal record, 30% 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 - 11 55.0%
of all 20 declarations
Emergency - 9 45.0%
of all 20 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 3 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
| 1989 | 1 | |
| 1970 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 20 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 20 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 |
| 4255 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-02-09 |
| 4223 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-05-29 |
| 1931 | HURRICANE ALEX | DR | Hurricane | 2010-08-03 |
| 3294 | HURRICANE IKE | EM | Hurricane | 2008-09-10 |
| 3290 | HURRICANE GUSTAV | EM | Hurricane | 2008-08-29 |
| 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 |
| 3113 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Drought | 1993-09-10 |
| 960 | EXCESSIVE RAIN & HAIL | DR | Severe Storm | 1992-09-09 |
| 828 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1989-05-19 |
| 286 | TORNADOES, WINDSTORMS & FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 1970-05-13 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Lubbock 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
346
Total Paid
$2.7M
Avg Per Claim
$7.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively High
Score: 96.2/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively High
$213.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Very High
Hail Very High
Strong Wind Very High
Tornado Relatively High
Winter Weather Very High
Cold Wave Relatively High
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively High
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Hurricane 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 Lubbock County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Very 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
Lubbock County's closest FEMA peer: Saratoga County, NY
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Lubbock County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Lubbock County shows 20 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Lubbock County: 11 of 20 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Lubbock County: NRI composite 96.2 (Relatively High).
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 Lubbock County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Lubbock 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: 96.2 (Relatively High).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 20. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Lubbock County's NFIP claims file (346 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 Lubbock County?
The most common disaster type in Lubbock County is Hurricane, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (5), Fire (3), Severe Ice Storm (2).
How does Lubbock County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
The typical Texas county has 20.9 FEMA declaration records; Lubbock County has 20, or 4% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 3% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Lubbock County received?
Lubbock County has received 11 major disaster declarations, representing 55% of all 20 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Lubbock County filed?
Lubbock County has 346 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $2.7M in payments, with an average of $7.9K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Lubbock County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Lubbock County was 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1970 to 2021.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Lubbock County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Lubbock County, Texas has an overall risk score of 96.2 out of 100 (Relatively High). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Moderate and community resilience is Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively High, representing $213.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Lubbock County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Lubbock County is Drought (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Hail (Very High) and Strong Wind (Very High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 76 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 2,681 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 Lubbock County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events