FEMA Records
13
Low volume
Georgia · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Muscogee County, GA
13 FEMA disaster declarations (1990-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 13
- FEMA declarations
- 7
- Major disasters
- 82
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Muscogee County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 13 declarations, more than 17% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 25% below the Georgia county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 18%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 18%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 13
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 243
- 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 13215 · Muscogee County 13 declarations · rank 2679/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 13
- MAJOR-MID 54%
- RANK-LOWER #2,679
- PHOTO-FINISH Clarke
- NRI-MID 82
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-BELOW -25%
Nearest declaration peer: Clarke, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Georgia state profile
Muscogee County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Muscogee County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Bristol (city) · near 13
Bristol (city) · near
13 declarations
- Clarke · near 13
Clarke · near
13 declarations
- Douglas · near 13
Douglas · near
13 declarations
- Muscogee · this county 13
Muscogee · this county
13 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Muscogee County carries 13 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2679 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Muscogee County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Muscogee County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Muscogee County
13 17th percentile higher than 17% 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
Muscogee County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Muscogee County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $25.8M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Lightning 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 Muscogee County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 243 paid claims, totaling $2.3M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $9.6K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Georgia county averages 17.4 federal declaration records, while Muscogee County has 13. The gap is 25% 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 81.6/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $39.1M 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, Lightning stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 66 times per year here, based on 215,675 historical events on record.
44 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Muscogee County, GA · 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
9/30
13 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.6x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
9/25
13 declarations (0.7x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share High
13/25
7 of 13 declarations are major disasters (54%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Muscogee County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Muscogee 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
54%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
82
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Muscogee 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 66 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 6.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 832 years |
| Hurricane | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 12 years |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.7 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 6 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 2,254 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 46 modeled event-days per year |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 5
Severe Storm 4
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Tropical Storm 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Muscogee County's federal record, 38% 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 - 7 53.8%
of all 13 declarations
Emergency - 6 46.2%
of all 13 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 13 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 13 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3642 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 3616 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-26 |
| 4501 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-29 |
| 3464 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 3406 | HURRICANE MICHAEL | EM | Hurricane | 2018-10-10 |
| 4338 | HURRICANE IRMA | DR | Hurricane | 2017-09-15 |
| 3387 | HURRICANE IRMA | EM | Hurricane | 2017-09-08 |
| 4259 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-02-26 |
| 1686 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-03-03 |
| 3218 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1209 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-03-11 |
| 1071 | HURRICANE OPAL | DR | Hurricane | 1995-10-10 |
| 857 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNAODES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-02-23 |
Storm Events in Georgia
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Muscogee County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 9,617 | 15 | 75 | $65.4M |
| Drought | 1,363 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Hail | 1,257 | 0 | 0 | $61.8M |
| Flash Flood | 1,154 | 0 | 3 | $29.3M |
| Tropical Storm | 655 | 28 | 19 | $855.3M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
243
Total Paid
$2.3M
Avg Per Claim
$9.6K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 81.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$39.1M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Moderate
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Lightning Relatively High
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Hurricane Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Very Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Drought Very Low
Cold Wave 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: Lightning
Lightning is modeled as a high-frequency, low-per-event hazard: strike counts are large, but each strike affects a very small area. Its aggregate cost accumulates through structure fires, electrical and electronic damage, and it is one of the few hazards whose risk is essentially continuous through the season rather than episodic.
Worth noting for Muscogee County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Lightning carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively 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
Muscogee County's closest FEMA peer: St. John the Baptist Parish, LA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Muscogee County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Muscogee County: NRI composite 81.6 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar Major-disaster share
Muscogee County: 7 of 13 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Muscogee County shows 13 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
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 Muscogee County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Muscogee 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: 81.6 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 13. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Muscogee County's NFIP claims file (243 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 Muscogee County?
The most common disaster type in Muscogee County is Hurricane, with 5 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (4), Biological (2), Winter Storm (1).
How does Muscogee County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Georgia average?
The typical Georgia county has 17.4 FEMA declaration records; Muscogee County has 13, or 25% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 37% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Muscogee County received?
Muscogee County has received 7 major disaster declarations, representing 54% of all 13 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Muscogee County filed?
Muscogee County has 243 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $2.3M in payments, with an average of $9.6K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Muscogee County?
No. In Muscogee County, Lightning has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $25.8M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Muscogee County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Muscogee County was 2017, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1990 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Muscogee County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Muscogee County, Georgia has an overall risk score of 81.6 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Moderate; on community resilience, Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $39.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Muscogee County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Muscogee County is Lightning (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Heat Wave (Relatively Moderate) and Riverine Flooding (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts lightning here at an average of 66 times per year, drawn from 215,675 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 Muscogee County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Georgia profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events