FEMA Records
20
Above median
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Nolan County, TX
20 FEMA disaster declarations (1980-2021), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 20
- FEMA declarations
- 11
- Major disasters
- 38
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Nolan 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 safer than 38%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 38%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 20
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 56
- 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 48353 · Nolan County 20 declarations · rank 1606/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 20
- MAJOR-MID 55%
- RANK-LOWER #1,606
- PHOTO-FINISH Monona
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- 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
Nolan County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Nolan County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Cleveland · near 20
Cleveland · near
20 declarations
- Monona · near 20
Monona · near
20 declarations
- Nolan · this county 20
Nolan · this county
20 declarations
- Tallapoosa · near 20
Tallapoosa · near
20 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Nolan County carries 20 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1606 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Nolan County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Nolan County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Nolan 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
Nolan County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Nolan County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $2.1M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), while Drought 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 Nolan County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 56 paid claims, totaling $1.1M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $19.9K 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 Nolan 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
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 37.8/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $7.3M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very High) and community resilience (Relatively Low) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Drought carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 66 modeled event-days per year here, based on 1,785 historical events on record.
60 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Nolan 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
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Nolan County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Nolan 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
38
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Nolan 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 | Relatively Moderate | 66 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 189 years |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5.3 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5.9 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 9.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 176 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 48 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,793 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 7
Hurricane 3
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Flood 2
Severe Storm 2
Drought 1
Tornado 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Nolan County's record, 35% of its declarations. Wildfire is the one hazard here with its own dedicated federal instrument: the Fire Management Assistance Grant, which appears in this data as an FM record. An FMAG can be authorised while a fire is still burning, on a timescale of hours, because its purpose is to reimburse the cost of fighting a fire that threatens to become a major disaster.
That distinction matters when comparing counties. An FM declaration is not a presidential major disaster declaration and does not carry the same assistance programmes, so a fire-heavy county's total is not directly comparable with a hurricane-heavy county's total unless the declaration types are separated, which is why they are listed separately on this page.
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 - 7 35.0%
of all 20 declarations
Fire Management - 2 10.0%
of all 20 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 4 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
| 1980 | 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 |
| 4416 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-02-25 |
| 4255 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-02-09 |
| 4029 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2011-09-09 |
| 2937 | NOLAN COUNTY FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2011-07-11 |
| 1999 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2011-07-01 |
| 2931 | WHITE HAT FIRE | FM | Fire | 2011-06-21 |
| 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 |
| 763 | SEVERE STORMS, RAINS & TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1986-04-23 |
| 632 | TROPICAL STORM DANIELLE | DR | Flood | 1980-09-26 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Nolan 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
56
Total Paid
$1.1M
Avg Per Claim
$19.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 37.8/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$7.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Earthquake 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 Nolan County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), while the county's declaration history is led by Fire. 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
Nolan County's closest FEMA peer: Crawford County, GA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Nolan County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Nolan County shows 20 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Nolan County: 11 of 20 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Nolan County: NRI composite 37.8 (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 Nolan County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Nolan 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: 37.8 (Very Low).
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
Nolan County's NFIP claims file (56 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 Nolan County?
The most common disaster type in Nolan County is Fire, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (3), Severe Ice Storm (2), Biological (2).
How does Nolan County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
The typical Texas county has 20.9 FEMA declaration records; Nolan 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 Nolan County received?
Nolan County has received 11 major disaster declarations, representing 55% of all 20 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Nolan County filed?
Nolan County has 56 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $1.1M in payments, with an average of $19.9K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Nolan County?
No. In Nolan County, Drought 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 Nolan County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Nolan County was 2011, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1980 to 2021.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Nolan County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Nolan County, Texas has an overall risk score of 37.8 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very High and community resilience is Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $7.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Nolan County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Nolan County as of the latest release is Drought (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Relatively Low) and Hail (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 66 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 1,785 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 Nolan County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events