FEMA Records
32
Very high volume
North Carolina · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
New Hanover County, NC
32 FEMA disaster declarations (1984-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively High. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 32
- FEMA declarations
- 16
- Major disasters
- 96
- NRI risk · Relatively High
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for New Hanover County. Its 32 FEMA declarations are 33% above the North Carolina county mean and exceed the count for 89% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 4%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 4%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively High
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 32
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 11,182
- 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.
How does New Hanover County compare?
New Hanover County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
32 Top 11% higher than 89% 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 · 2026-08-03
New Hanover County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the North Carolina county average
What does New Hanover County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 11,182 claims and $187.7M 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 $16.8K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. New Hanover County's 32 federal records stand 33% above the North Carolina county mean of 24.0. That comparison describes how often federal action was recorded, including any Major Disaster, Emergency, and Fire Management entries shown on this page; it does not convert the count into future probability.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 96.1/100 (Relatively High). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively High (roughly $257.1M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very Low and community resilience Very High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Hurricane stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 3 years here, based on 123 historical events on record.
Declaration frequency
The FEMA register is busy by both local and national comparisons. It contains 32 entries for New Hanover County, including 16 Major Disaster records, 33% above the North Carolina county mean. Across the 42-year span, that works out to 0.8 declarations a year. Hurricane leads the file with 23 entries. Declaration type records the federal action taken, not every assistance program approved.
68 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
New Hanover County, NC · 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) Very High
23/30
32 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.5x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
17/25
32 declarations (1.3x state county average of 24)
Major Disaster Share High
13/25
16 of 32 declarations are major disasters (50%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in New Hanover County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. North Carolina Avg
+33%
State avg: 24.0
vs. National Avg
+54%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.8
Over 42 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - New Hanover 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
50%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
96
Relatively High
Source: FEMA National Risk Index FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike New Hanover 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | Very High | roughly once every 3 years |
| Lightning | Very High | an average of 57 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 1.5 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | roughly once every 1 years |
| Tornado | Relatively High | roughly once every 6 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.5 times per year |
| Coastal Flooding | Relatively High | an average of 3.7 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 7.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1,139 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 791 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 2.2 times per year |
| Drought | Very Low | 5.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 36 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 23
Tropical Storm 3
Biological 2
Severe Storm 2
Winter Storm 1
Snowstorm 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on New Hanover County's federal record, 72% 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).
Emergency - 16 50.0%
of all 32 declarations
Major Disaster - 16 50.0%
of all 32 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 2 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 4 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 3 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
Show 5 earlier declaration years
| 1999 | 3 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 2 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1984 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 32 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 32 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3637 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4837 | POTENTIAL TROPICAL CYCLONE EIGHT | DR | Tropical Storm | 2024-10-19 |
| 3617 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-26 |
| 3608 | TROPICAL STORM DEBBY | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-08-06 |
| 3586 | HURRICANE IAN | EM | Hurricane | 2022-10-01 |
| 4568 | HURRICANE ISAIAS | DR | Hurricane | 2020-10-14 |
| 3534 | HURRICANE ISAIAS | EM | Hurricane | 2020-08-02 |
| 4487 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3471 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4465 | HURRICANE DORIAN | DR | Hurricane | 2019-10-04 |
| 3423 | HURRICANE DORIAN | EM | Hurricane | 2019-09-03 |
| 4393 | HURRICANE FLORENCE | DR | Hurricane | 2018-09-14 |
| 3401 | HURRICANE FLORENCE | EM | Hurricane | 2018-09-10 |
| 4285 | HURRICANE MATTHEW | DR | Hurricane | 2016-10-10 |
| 3380 | HURRICANE MATTHEW | EM | Hurricane | 2016-10-07 |
| 4019 | HURRICANE IRENE | DR | Hurricane | 2011-08-31 |
| 3327 | HURRICANE IRENE | EM | Hurricane | 2011-08-25 |
| 1942 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-10-14 |
| 3314 | HURRICANE EARL | EM | Hurricane | 2010-09-01 |
| 1801 | TROPICAL STORM HANNA | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-10-08 |
Show 12 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1608 | HURRICANE OPHELIA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-10-07 |
| 3254 | HURRICANE OPHELIA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-14 |
| 3222 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1490 | HURRICANE ISABEL | DR | Hurricane | 2003-09-18 |
| 1292 | HURRICANE FLOYD MAJOR DISASTER DECLARATIONS | DR | Hurricane | 1999-09-16 |
| 3146 | HURRICANE FLOYD EMERGENCY DECLARATIONS | EM | Hurricane | 1999-09-15 |
| 3141 | HURRICANE DENNIS | EM | Hurricane | 1999-09-01 |
| 1240 | HURRICANE BONNIE | DR | Hurricane | 1998-08-27 |
| 1134 | HURRICANE FRAN | DR | Hurricane | 1996-09-06 |
| 1127 | HURRICANE BERTHA | DR | Hurricane | 1996-07-18 |
| 3110 | SEVERE SNOWFALL & WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-17 |
| 724 | HURRICANE DIANA | DR | Hurricane | 1984-09-21 |
Storm Events in North Carolina
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to New Hanover County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 7,123 | 11 | 60 | $62.9M |
| Flash Flood | 1,881 | 105 | 6 | $2.3B |
| Hail | 1,623 | 0 | 0 | $122.5M |
| Winter Weather | 1,272 | 6 | 2 | $425.0K |
| Winter Storm | 743 | 7 | 0 | $10.7M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
11,182
Total Paid
$187.7M
Avg Per Claim
$16.8K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively High
Score: 96.1/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively High
$257.1M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hurricane Very High
Lightning Very High
Winter Weather Relatively High
Ice Storm Relatively High
Tornado Relatively High
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Coastal Flooding Relatively High
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Earthquake Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Hail Very Low
Drought Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) Ratings reflect relative scores among all US counties. Data: hazards.fema.gov/nri
The model's sharpest exposure here: Hurricane
Hurricane exposure in the model bundles the three ways a tropical system does harm, which arrive on different timescales and are insured differently: wind, storm surge on the coast, and rainfall flooding that can reach far inland well after landfall.
For New Hanover County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hurricane is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Very High), and Hurricane 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
New Hanover County's closest FEMA peer: Worcester County, MA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for New Hanover County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
New Hanover County shows 32 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
New Hanover County: 16 of 32 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
New Hanover County: NRI composite 96.1 (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 New Hanover County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
New Hanover County's NFIP claims file (11,182 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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in New Hanover County?
The most common disaster type in New Hanover County is Hurricane, with 23 declarations. Other disaster types include Tropical Storm (3), Biological (2), Severe Storm (2).
How does New Hanover County's FEMA declaration record compare with the North Carolina average?
FEMA lists 32 declaration records for New Hanover County. That is 33% above the North Carolina county mean of 24.0. Its count is also 54% above the national county mean of 20.7. A larger declaration history records more federal actions; it is not a forecast of the county's next hazard.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has New Hanover County received?
New Hanover County has received 16 major disaster declarations, representing 50% of all 32 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has New Hanover County filed?
New Hanover County has 11,182 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $187.7M in payments, with an average of $16.8K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in New Hanover County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in New Hanover County was 2020, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1984 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for New Hanover County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, New Hanover County, North Carolina has an overall risk score of 96.1 out of 100 (Relatively High). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively High, representing $257.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to New Hanover County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in New Hanover County is Hurricane (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Lightning (Very High) and Winter Weather (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hurricane here at roughly once every 3 years, drawn from 123 historical events on record. 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.
What this means for New Hanover County
New Hanover County, NC has 32 federal declaration records, 33% more than the North Carolina county mean of 24; its history sits in PlainHazard's high activity band.
- Within this above-state-average declaration file, emergency leads with 16 of 32 records; the category describes past federal action, not the next likely hazard. North Carolina overview
- The state benchmark and national rank point the same way: this count tops the North Carolina mean and the totals for 89% of 3,266 U.S. counties. Most-disaster rankings
- The large NFIP claims file and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records; the guide explains where they overlap and where they do not. Disaster-data guide
An above-average declaration count records past federal responses; it does not predict the next event. Current warnings come from the National Weather Service and local emergency officials.
PlainHazard derives this profile from FEMA's Disaster Declarations Summaries and National Risk Index data. The declaration comparison covers 3,266 U.S. counties and county equivalents in this database, refreshed as of 2026-08-03. Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
All federal data sources used on this page
- FEMA OpenFEMA, Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 - all federally-declared disasters for this county. fema.gov/openfema/disaster-declarations
- FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) - per-county per-hazard risk ratings and expected annual loss. hazards.fema.gov/nri
- NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database - state-level storm/severe-weather event records, 2015-2025. ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainHazard Editorial
Verify with FEMA → · Verify with FEMA NRI → · Verify with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.