FEMA Records
30
High volume
North Carolina · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Pamlico County, NC
30 FEMA disaster declarations (1989-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 30
- FEMA declarations
- 14
- Major disasters
- 72
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Pamlico County. Its 30 FEMA declarations are 25% above the North Carolina county mean and exceed the count for 86% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 28%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 28%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 30
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 4,330
- 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 37137 · Pamlico County 30 declarations · rank 394/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 30
- MAJOR-LIGHT 47%
- RANK-MID #394
- PHOTO-FINISH Jefferson
- NRI-LOW 72
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-ABOVE +25%
Nearest declaration peer: Jefferson, OK (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · North Carolina state profile
Pamlico County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Pamlico 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
- Pamlico · this county 30
Pamlico · this county
30 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Pamlico County carries 30 FEMA declaration records, ranked 394 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Pamlico County ranks in the national declaration registry
Pamlico County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Pamlico 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
Pamlico County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Pamlico County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 4,330 claims and $102.8M 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 $23.7K. 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. Pamlico County's 30 federal records stand 25% 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 carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 72.4/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $22.6M in annualized losses), and a Very High social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively High community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Hurricane stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 2 years here, based on 139 historical events on record.
65 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Pamlico 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) High
22/30
30 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.4x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
16/25
30 declarations (1.2x state county average of 24)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
12/25
14 of 30 declarations are major disasters (47%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Pamlico County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Pamlico 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
47%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
72
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Pamlico 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 High | roughly once every 2 years |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 544 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 53 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.6 times per year |
| Coastal Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 8.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,212 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Drought | Very Low | 0.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 26 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 1.9 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 23
Tropical Storm 2
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Snowstorm 1
Tornado 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Pamlico County's federal record, 77% 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 53.3%
of all 30 declarations
Major Disaster - 14 46.7%
of all 30 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 2 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 4 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 4 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
Show 3 earlier declaration years
| 1996 | 2 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1989 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3637 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 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 |
| 3314 | HURRICANE EARL | EM | Hurricane | 2010-09-01 |
| 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 |
Show 10 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 1291 | HURRICANE DENNIS | DR | Hurricane | 1999-09-09 |
| 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 |
| 818 | SEVERE STORMS & TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1988-12-02 |
Storm Events in North Carolina
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Pamlico 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 State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
4,330
Total Paid
$102.8M
Avg Per Claim
$23.7K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 72.4/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$22.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hurricane Relatively High
Wildfire Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Coastal Flooding Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Drought Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Hail 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: 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 Pamlico County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hurricane is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively 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
Pamlico County's closest FEMA peer: Larimer County, CO
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Pamlico County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Pamlico County shows 30 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Pamlico County: 14 of 30 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Pamlico County: NRI composite 72.4 (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 Pamlico County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Pamlico 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: 72.4 (Relatively 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
Pamlico County's NFIP claims file (4,330 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 Pamlico County?
The most common disaster type in Pamlico County is Hurricane, with 23 declarations. Other disaster types include Tropical Storm (2), Biological (2), Winter Storm (1).
How does Pamlico County's FEMA declaration record compare with the North Carolina average?
FEMA lists 30 declaration records for Pamlico County. That is 25% above the North Carolina county mean of 24.0. 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 Pamlico County received?
Pamlico County has received 14 major disaster declarations, representing 47% of all 30 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Pamlico County filed?
Pamlico County has 4,330 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $102.8M in payments, with an average of $23.7K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Pamlico County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Pamlico County was 1999, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1989 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Pamlico County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Pamlico County, North Carolina has an overall risk score of 72.4 out of 100 (Relatively Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very High, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $22.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Pamlico County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Pamlico County as of the latest release is Hurricane (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Wildfire (Relatively Low) and Lightning (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hurricane here at roughly once every 2 years, drawn from 139 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 Pamlico County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · North Carolina profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events