FEMA Records
21
Above median
Tennessee · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
McNairy County, TN
21 FEMA disaster declarations (1975-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 21
- FEMA declarations
- 17
- Major disasters
- 51
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
McNairy County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 21 declarations, more than 52% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 2% below the Tennessee county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 49%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 49%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 21
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 17
- 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 47109 · McNairy County 21 declarations · rank 1406/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 21
- MAJOR-HEAVY 81%
- RANK-LOWER #1,406
- PHOTO-FINISH Montgomery
- NRI-LOW 51
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -2%
Nearest declaration peer: Montgomery, IN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Tennessee state profile
McNairy County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among McNairy County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Atascosa · near 21
Atascosa · near
21 declarations
- Mason · near 21
Mason · near
21 declarations
- McNairy · this county 21
McNairy · this county
21 declarations
- Montgomery · near 21
Montgomery · near
21 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows McNairy County carries 21 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1406 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How McNairy County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
McNairy County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · McNairy County
21 Top 48% higher than 52% 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
McNairy County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does McNairy County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 50.5/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $14.6M in annualized losses), and a Relatively Moderate social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively Low community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Earthquake carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 186 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 17 claims and $815.8K 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 Tennessee county averages 21.4 federal declaration records, while McNairy County has 21. The gap is 2% 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.
65 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
McNairy County, TN · 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
15/30
21 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
21 declarations (1.0x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share Very High
20/25
17 of 21 declarations are major disasters (81%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in McNairy County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - McNairy 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
81%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
51
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike McNairy 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 186 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.6 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 15 modeled event-days per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.2 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 22 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 60 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 13 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,754 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 3.2 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 5.2 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 11
Winter Storm 2
Tornado 2
Biological 2
Flood 2
Severe Ice Storm 1
Hurricane 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on McNairy County's record, 52% 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 - 17 81.0%
of all 21 declarations
Emergency - 4 19.0%
of all 21 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | |
| 2025 | 2 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
Show 2 earlier declaration years
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 21 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 21 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4898 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Winter Storm | 2026-02-06 |
| 3635 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4878 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2025-06-19 |
| 3625 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | EM | Severe Storm | 2025-04-02 |
| 4701 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-04-07 |
| 4601 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 2021-05-08 |
| 4514 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-02 |
| 3473 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4471 | SEVERE STORM AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2019-12-06 |
| 4427 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2019-04-17 |
| 4211 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2015-04-02 |
| 4189 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2014-08-13 |
| 1974 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND ASSOCIATED FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-05-01 |
| 1909 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-05-04 |
| 1745 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-02-07 |
| 3217 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1408 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-04-05 |
| 1275 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1999-05-12 |
| 1167 | HEAVY RAINS, TORNADOES, FLOODING, HAIL, HIGH WINDS | DR | Tornado | 1997-03-07 |
| 1010 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM,FLASH FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-02-28 |
Show 1 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 459 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-03-22 |
Storm Events in Tennessee
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to McNairy County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 6,558 | 22 | 58 | $107.0M |
| Hail | 1,690 | 0 | 0 | $545.5K |
| Heat | 1,343 | 9 | 15 | $0 |
| Flash Flood | 1,264 | 55 | 3 | $334.4M |
| Winter Weather | 1,088 | 5 | 0 | $261.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
17
Total Paid
$815.8K
Avg Per Claim
$48.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 50.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$14.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Earthquake Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Hail 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: Earthquake
Earthquake is the model's clearest example of a hazard with no season and no warning. Its expected loss is driven less by how often shaking occurs than by how much of the building stock predates modern seismic codes, so exposure can be high in places where nothing has happened for a long time.
Worth noting for McNairy County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Earthquake carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), while the county's declaration history is led by Severe Storm. 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
McNairy County's closest FEMA peer: Lac qui Parle County, MN
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for McNairy County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
McNairy County shows 21 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
McNairy County: 17 of 21 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
McNairy County: NRI composite 50.5 (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 McNairy County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for McNairy 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: 50.5 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 21. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 21 FEMA declarations, McNairy 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 McNairy County?
The most common disaster type in McNairy County is Severe Storm, with 11 declarations. Other disaster types include Winter Storm (2), Tornado (2), Biological (2).
How does McNairy County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Tennessee average?
The typical Tennessee county has 21.4 FEMA declaration records; McNairy County has 21, or 2% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 1% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has McNairy County received?
McNairy County has received 17 major disaster declarations, representing 81% of all 21 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has McNairy County filed?
McNairy County has 17 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $815.8K in payments, with an average of $48.0K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in McNairy County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in McNairy County was 2020, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1975 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for McNairy County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, McNairy County, Tennessee has an overall risk score of 50.5 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Moderate; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $14.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to McNairy County?
FEMA's NRI data points to McNairy County as of the latest release is Earthquake (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Cold Wave (Relatively Moderate) and Landslide (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts earthquake here at roughly once every 186 years. 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 McNairy County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Tennessee profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events