FEMA Records
15
Below median
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Parmer County, TX
15 FEMA disaster declarations (1970-2021), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 15
- FEMA declarations
- 9
- Major disasters
- 82
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Parmer County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 15 declarations, more than 23% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 28% below the Texas 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
- 15
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 3
- severe ice storm declarations, the most common hazard here
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 48369 · Parmer County 15 declarations · rank 2390/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 15
- MAJOR-MID 60%
- RANK-LOWER #2,390
- PHOTO-FINISH Polk
- NRI-MID 82
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -28%
Nearest declaration peer: Polk, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Texas state profile
Parmer County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Parmer County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Flathead · near 15
Flathead · near
15 declarations
- Murray · near 15
Murray · near
15 declarations
- Parmer · this county 15
Parmer · this county
15 declarations
- Polk · near 15
Polk · near
15 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Parmer County carries 15 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2390 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Parmer County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Parmer County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Parmer County
15 23rd percentile higher than 23% 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
Parmer County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Parmer County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 81.8/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $47.9M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Low and community resilience Very Low, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Drought stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 100 modeled event-days per year here, based on 2,758 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
No paid-claim row for this county appears in the NFIP county table used by PlainHazard. That absence is not evidence that flooding never occurred: the register observes claims under federal flood-insurance policies, not uninsured losses, emergency reports, or every flood outside the program. The FEMA declaration history below is therefore the available federal-action record on this page.
Start with the state benchmark: a Texas county averages 20.9 federal declaration records, while Parmer County has 15. The gap is 28% 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.
50 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Parmer 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
11/30
15 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
9/25
15 declarations (0.7x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share High
15/25
9 of 15 declarations are major disasters (60%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Parmer County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Parmer 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
60%
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 Parmer 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 | Very High | 100 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5.6 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 7.6 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 288 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 1.8 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 2.5 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,198 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 1 modeled event-day per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 48 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 13 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Ice Storm 3
Severe Storm 3
Fire 3
Hurricane 3
Biological 2
Tornado 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Parmer County's record, 20% of its declarations. In FEMA's vocabulary this covers convective weather: thunderstorm straight-line winds, large hail, and the multi-day outbreaks that often carry embedded tornadoes. Activity is heaviest in spring and summer, though the season varies by region.
These events behave differently from a hurricane on paper. Damage tends to be distributed along a storm track rather than concentrated on a coastline, and a declaration typically follows an outbreak that crossed several counties over a few days, not a single point of impact. Because the qualifying threshold is the cost of uninsured public and individual losses rather than storm intensity, two similar storms can produce a declaration in one year and none in another.
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 - 9 60.0%
of all 15 declarations
Emergency - 6 40.0%
of all 15 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
| 1970 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 15 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 15 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 |
| 4255 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-02-09 |
| 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 |
| 1356 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2001-01-08 |
| 3142 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARDS | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
| 1239 | TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-26 |
| 960 | EXCESSIVE RAIN & HAIL | DR | Severe Storm | 1992-09-09 |
| 286 | TORNADOES, WINDSTORMS & FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 1970-05-13 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Parmer 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
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 81.8/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$47.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Very High
Hail Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Riverine Flooding 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 Parmer County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Very High), while the county's declaration history is led by Severe Storm. 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
Parmer County's closest FEMA peer: Tippecanoe County, IN
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Parmer County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Parmer County: NRI composite 81.8 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar Major-disaster share
Parmer County: 9 of 15 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Parmer County shows 15 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
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 Parmer County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Parmer 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: 81.8 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 15. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 15 FEMA declarations, Parmer County sits in the high-volume declaration band - see how that count ranks against other U.S. counties.
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 Parmer County?
The most common disaster type in Parmer County is Severe Storm, with 3 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Ice Storm (3), Fire (3), Hurricane (3).
How does Parmer County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
The typical Texas county has 20.9 FEMA declaration records; Parmer County has 15, or 28% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 28% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Parmer County received?
Parmer County has received 9 major disaster declarations, representing 60% of all 15 disaster declarations.
What was the worst year for disasters in Parmer County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Parmer County was 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1970 to 2021.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Parmer County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Parmer County, Texas has an overall risk score of 81.8 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Low and community resilience is Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $47.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Parmer County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Parmer County is Drought (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively Moderate) and Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 100 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 2,758 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.
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 Parmer County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events