FEMA Records
23
Above median
West Virginia · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Pocahontas County, WV
23 FEMA disaster declarations (1967-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 23
- FEMA declarations
- 16
- Major disasters
- 28
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Pocahontas County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 23 declarations, more than 62% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 5% below the West Virginia county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 28%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 28%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 23
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 706
- 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 54075 · Pocahontas County 23 declarations · rank 1224/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 23
- MAJOR-MID 70%
- RANK-LOWER #1,224
- PHOTO-FINISH Roanoke
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -5%
Nearest declaration peer: Roanoke, VA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · West Virginia state profile
Pocahontas County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Pocahontas County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Amherst · near 23
Amherst · near
23 declarations
- Pocahontas · this county 23
Pocahontas · this county
23 declarations
- Roanoke · near 23
Roanoke · near
23 declarations
- Vance · near 23
Vance · near
23 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Pocahontas County carries 23 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1224 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Pocahontas County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Pocahontas County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Pocahontas County
23 Top 38% higher than 62% 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
Pocahontas County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Pocahontas County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $5.6M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Landslide 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 Pocahontas County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 706 claims and $15.1M 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 $21.4K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
Start with the state benchmark: a West Virginia county averages 24.2 federal declaration records, while Pocahontas County has 23. The gap is 5% 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
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 27.5/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $6.8M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Relatively High social-vulnerability score and Relatively Low community-resilience score. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Landslide carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 2.3 times per year here.
64 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Pocahontas County, WV · 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
17/30
23 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.1x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
23 declarations (1.0x state county average of 24)
Major Disaster Share High
17/25
16 of 23 declarations are major disasters (70%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Pocahontas County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Pocahontas 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
70%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
28
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Pocahontas 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.3 times per year |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 41 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 5.3 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 84 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 22 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 2.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,274 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 2 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,424 years |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 15 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 6
Severe Storm 5
Hurricane 4
Snowstorm 4
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Pocahontas County's record, 26% of its declarations. Federal flood declarations cover two mechanisms that behave very differently: riverine flooding, which builds over days as a watershed drains and is usually forecast well in advance, and flash flooding, which can arrive in under an hour from rainfall that fell somewhere upstream.
Flood is also the one hazard class where a second federal dataset exists for the same events. The National Flood Insurance Program records what was actually paid on insured losses, so it measures a narrower thing than the declaration count: uninsured damage, and flooding outside mapped special flood hazard areas, never enters it. Reading the two together is more informative than either alone.
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 - 16 69.6%
of all 23 declarations
Emergency - 7 30.4%
of all 23 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 2 | |
| 2012 | 2 | |
| 2010 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 3 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
Show 2 earlier declaration years
| 1969 | 1 | |
| 1967 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 23 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 23 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3639 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4517 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-03 |
| 3450 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4273 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2016-06-25 |
| 4093 | HURRICANE SANDY | DR | Hurricane | 2012-11-27 |
| 3358 | HURRICANE SANDY | EM | Hurricane | 2012-10-29 |
| 4071 | SEVERE STORMS AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2012-07-23 |
| 3345 | SEVERE STORMS | EM | Severe Storm | 2012-06-30 |
| 1903 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND SNOWSTORMS | DR | Snowstorm | 2010-04-23 |
| 1881 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2010-03-02 |
| 1696 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-05-01 |
| 3221 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1500 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-11-21 |
| 1455 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, RECORD/NEAR RECORD SNOW, HEAVY RAINS, FLOODING AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-03-14 |
| 1319 | FLOODING, SEVERE STORMS, AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2000-02-28 |
| 1115 | FLOODING, HEAVY WINDS | DR | Flood | 1996-05-23 |
| 1096 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1996-01-25 |
| 1084 | BLIZZARD OF 96 (SEVERE SNOW STORM) | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-13 |
| 3109 | SEVERE SNOWFALL & WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-17 |
| 753 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1985-11-07 |
Show 3 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3051 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-08-24 |
| 278 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Hurricane | 1969-09-03 |
| 224 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1967-03-13 |
Storm Events in West Virginia
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Pocahontas County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 3,644 | 4 | 9 | $16.4M |
| Winter Weather | 1,939 | 0 | 22 | $1.3M |
| Flood | 1,127 | 13 | 0 | $109.0M |
| Flash Flood | 1,003 | 33 | 1 | $141.5M |
| Hail | 757 | 1 | 0 | $6.5M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
706
Total Paid
$15.1M
Avg Per Claim
$21.4K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 27.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$6.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Avalanche Very Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Hail Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Heat Wave No Rating
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: Landslide
Landslide risk is a function of slope, soil and water, so it is usually a SECOND-ORDER hazard: it is triggered by the rainfall, snowmelt, wildfire burn scars or seismic shaking that came first. That is why a county can carry high landslide exposure whose realized damage is recorded under a flood or storm declaration instead.
Worth noting for Pocahontas County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Landslide carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), while the county's declaration history is led by Flood. 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
Pocahontas County's closest FEMA peer: Marion County, KY
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Pocahontas County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Pocahontas County shows 23 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Pocahontas County: 16 of 23 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Pocahontas County: NRI composite 27.5 (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 Pocahontas County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Pocahontas 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: 27.5 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 23. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Pocahontas County's NFIP claims file (706 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 Pocahontas County?
The most common disaster type in Pocahontas County is Flood, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (5), Hurricane (4), Snowstorm (4).
How does Pocahontas County's FEMA declaration record compare with the West Virginia average?
The typical West Virginia county has 24.2 FEMA declaration records; Pocahontas County has 23, or 5% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 11% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Pocahontas County received?
Pocahontas County has received 16 major disaster declarations, representing 70% of all 23 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Pocahontas County filed?
Pocahontas County has 706 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $15.1M in payments, with an average of $21.4K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Pocahontas County?
No. In Pocahontas County, Landslide has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $5.6M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Pocahontas County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Pocahontas County was 1996, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1967 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Pocahontas County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Pocahontas County, West Virginia has an overall risk score of 27.5 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively High, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $6.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Pocahontas County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Pocahontas County as of the latest release is Landslide (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Avalanche (Very Low) and Riverine Flooding (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts landslide here at an average of 2.3 times per year. FEMA derives these ratings from historical event frequency, the assets exposed, and the community's vulnerability profile.
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 Pocahontas County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · West Virginia profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events