FEMA Records
30
High volume
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Newton County, TX
30 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 30
- FEMA declarations
- 19
- Major disasters
- 27
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Newton County. Its 30 FEMA declarations are 43% above the Texas county mean and exceed the count for 86% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 27%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 27%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 30
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 552
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Fire Management Assistance (FM) records, which are not presidential disaster declarations, alongside Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 48351 · Newton County 30 declarations · rank 396/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 30
- MAJOR-MID 63%
- RANK-MID #396
- PHOTO-FINISH Jefferson
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-ABOVE +43%
Nearest declaration peer: Jefferson, OK (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Texas state profile
Newton County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Newton County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Clallam · near 30
Clallam · near
30 declarations
- Jefferson · near 30
Jefferson · near
30 declarations
- Latimer · near 30
Latimer · near
30 declarations
- Newton · this county 30
Newton · this county
30 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Newton County carries 30 FEMA declaration records, ranked 396 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Newton County ranks in the national declaration registry
Newton County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Newton County
30 Top 14% higher than 86% 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
Newton County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Newton County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $2.1M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very Low), while Hurricane carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). 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 Newton County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 552 claims and $28.0M 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 $50.7K. 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. Newton County's 30 federal records stand 43% above the Texas county mean of 20.9. 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's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 27.2/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $5.5M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Very High social-vulnerability score and Very Low community-resilience score. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Hurricane carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 9 years here, based on 44 historical events on record.
74 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Newton 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) High
22/30
30 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.4x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
18/25
30 declarations (1.4x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share High
16/25
19 of 30 declarations are major disasters (63%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Newton County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Newton 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
63%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
27
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Newton 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 | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 9 years |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 307 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 77 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 11 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Coastal Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 83 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 26 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,227 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 1.6 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 2 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | an average of 1 time per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 1.2 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 10
Fire 7
Flood 4
Severe Storm 4
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Coastal Storm 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Newton County's federal record, 33% 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 - 19 63.3%
of all 30 declarations
Emergency - 10 33.3%
of all 30 declarations
Fire Management - 1 3.3%
of all 30 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2 | |
| 2021 | 3 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2016 | 2 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 4 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
Show 2 earlier declaration years
| 1989 | 2 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 30 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 30 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4798 | HURRICANE BERYL | DR | Hurricane | 2024-07-09 |
| 4781 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2024-05-17 |
| 4586 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-19 |
| 3554 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-14 |
| 4572 | HURRICANE LAURA | DR | Hurricane | 2020-12-09 |
| 3540 | TROPICAL STORMS MARCO AND LAURA | EM | Hurricane | 2020-08-24 |
| 4485 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3458 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4332 | HURRICANE HARVEY | DR | Hurricane | 2017-08-25 |
| 4266 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2016-03-19 |
| 4245 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-11-25 |
| 4223 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-05-29 |
| 4029 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2011-09-09 |
| 1999 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2011-07-01 |
| 1791 | HURRICANE IKE | DR | Hurricane | 2008-09-13 |
| 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 |
Show 10 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3261 | HURRICANE RITA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-21 |
| 3216 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-02 |
| 1379 | TX-TROPICAL STORM ALLISON-06-06-2001 | DR | Coastal Storm | 2001-06-09 |
| 2328 | TX - MOORE BRANCH FIRE - 09/03/00 | FM | Fire | 2000-09-03 |
| 3142 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARDS | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
| 1239 | TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-26 |
| 3117 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Fire | 1996-02-23 |
| 836 | TROPICAL STORM ALLISON | DR | Flood | 1989-07-18 |
| 828 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1989-05-19 |
| 398 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-07-11 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Newton 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
552
Total Paid
$28.0M
Avg Per Claim
$50.7K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 27.2/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$5.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hurricane Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Coastal Flooding Very Low
Drought Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Hail Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively 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: 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 Newton County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hurricane is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Moderate), 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
Newton County's closest FEMA peer: St. Clair County, AL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Newton County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Newton County shows 30 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Newton County: 19 of 30 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Newton County: NRI composite 27.2 (Very 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 Newton County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Newton 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: 27.2 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 30. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Newton County's NFIP claims file (552 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 Newton County?
The most common disaster type in Newton County is Hurricane, with 10 declarations. Other disaster types include Fire (7), Flood (4), Severe Storm (4).
How does Newton County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
FEMA lists 30 declaration records for Newton County. That is 43% above the Texas county mean of 20.9. Its count is also 45% 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 Newton County received?
Newton County has received 19 major disaster declarations, representing 63% of all 30 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Newton County filed?
Newton County has 552 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $28.0M in payments, with an average of $50.7K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Newton County?
No. In Newton County, Hurricane has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $2.1M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Newton County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Newton County was 2008, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Newton County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Newton County, Texas has an overall risk score of 27.2 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very High, while community resilience comes in at Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $5.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Newton County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Newton County is Hurricane (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Relatively Low) and Lightning (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hurricane here at roughly once every 9 years, drawn from 44 historical events on record. The underlying methodology weighs historical event frequency against 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 Newton County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events