FEMA Records
19
Below median
Alabama · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Pickens County, AL
19 FEMA disaster declarations (1974-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 19
- FEMA declarations
- 10
- Major disasters
- 45
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Pickens County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 19 declarations, more than 41% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 26% below the Alabama county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 45%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 45%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 19
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 116
- 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 01107 · Pickens County 19 declarations · rank 1826/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 19
- MAJOR-MID 53%
- RANK-LOWER #1,826
- PHOTO-FINISH Bartow
- NRI-LOW 45
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- VS-ST-BELOW -26%
Nearest declaration peer: Bartow, GA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Alabama state profile
Pickens County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Pickens County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Bartow · near 19
Bartow · near
19 declarations
- Pickens · this county 19
Pickens · this county
19 declarations
- Union · near 19
Union · near
19 declarations
- Warren · near 19
Warren · near
19 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Pickens County carries 19 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1826 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Pickens County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Pickens County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Pickens County
19 41st percentile higher than 41% 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
Pickens County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Pickens County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $3.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), while Heat Wave 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 Pickens County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 116 paid claims, totaling $1.2M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $10.3K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Alabama county averages 25.8 federal declaration records, while Pickens County has 19. The gap is 26% 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 44.7/100 for this county (Relatively Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $8.9M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very High) and community resilience (Very Low) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Heat Wave carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 10 modeled event-days per year here, based on 166 historical events on record.
54 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Pickens County, AL · 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
19 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.9x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
9/25
19 declarations (0.7x state county average of 26)
Major Disaster Share High
13/25
10 of 19 declarations are major disasters (53%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Pickens County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Pickens 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
53%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
45
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Pickens 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 10 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 335 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 68 times per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 14 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 3.4 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 1.9 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 22 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 2,600 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 2.7 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 9
Severe Storm 4
Biological 2
Snowstorm 1
Flood 1
Drought 1
Tornado 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Pickens County's federal record, 47% 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 - 10 52.6%
of all 19 declarations
Emergency - 9 47.4%
of all 19 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 19 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 19 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3618 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Hurricane | 2024-09-26 |
| 3545 | HURRICANE SALLY | EM | Hurricane | 2020-09-14 |
| 4503 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-29 |
| 3472 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 3389 | HURRICANE IRMA | EM | Hurricane | 2017-09-11 |
| 4176 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2014-05-02 |
| 4082 | HURRICANE ISAAC | DR | Hurricane | 2012-09-21 |
| 1971 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-04-28 |
| 3319 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | EM | Severe Storm | 2011-04-27 |
| 3292 | HURRICANE GUSTAV | EM | Hurricane | 2008-08-30 |
| 3237 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-10 |
| 1605 | HURRICANE KATRINA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-08-29 |
| 1593 | HURRICANE DENNIS | DR | Hurricane | 2005-07-10 |
| 1549 | HURRICANE IVAN | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-15 |
| 1442 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-11-14 |
| 3096 | SEVERE SNOWFALL, WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-15 |
| 578 | STORMS, WIND, FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1979-04-18 |
| 3045 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-07-20 |
| 422 | TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1974-04-04 |
Storm Events in Alabama
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Pickens County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 7,827 | 16 | 115 | $51.7M |
| Hail | 1,349 | 0 | 0 | $5.0K |
| Flash Flood | 1,047 | 17 | 7 | $12.8M |
| Tornado | 896 | 57 | 343 | $49.7M |
| Drought | 857 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
116
Total Paid
$1.2M
Avg Per Claim
$10.3K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 44.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$8.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Relatively Low
Landslide Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Winter Weather 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: Heat Wave
Heat Wave is measured in event-days per year rather than discrete events, and it is the hazard whose harm is most consistently undercounted: its toll is health and mortality, concentrated among people without cooling, rather than visible damage to property.
Worth noting for Pickens County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Heat Wave carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), while the county's declaration history is led by Hurricane. 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
Pickens County's closest FEMA peer: Gillespie County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Pickens County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Pickens County shows 19 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Pickens County: 10 of 19 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Pickens County: NRI composite 44.7 (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 Pickens County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Pickens 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: 44.7 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 19. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Pickens County's NFIP claims file (116 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 Pickens County?
The most common disaster type in Pickens County is Hurricane, with 9 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (4), Biological (2), Snowstorm (1).
How does Pickens County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Alabama average?
The typical Alabama county has 25.8 FEMA declaration records; Pickens County has 19, or 26% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 8% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Pickens County received?
Pickens County has received 10 major disaster declarations, representing 53% of all 19 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Pickens County filed?
Pickens County has 116 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $1.2M in payments, with an average of $10.3K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Pickens County?
No. In Pickens County, Heat Wave has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $3.3M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Pickens County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Pickens County was 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1974 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Pickens County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Pickens County, Alabama has an overall risk score of 44.7 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very High; on community resilience, Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $8.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Pickens County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Pickens County is Heat Wave (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Earthquake (Relatively Low) and Tornado (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts heat wave here at 10 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 166 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Pickens County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Alabama profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events