FEMA Records
24
Above median
Virginia · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Powhatan County, VA
24 FEMA disaster declarations (1969-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 24
- FEMA declarations
- 16
- Major disasters
- 21
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Powhatan County. Its 24 FEMA declarations are 18% above the Virginia county mean and exceed the count for 66% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 21%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 21%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 24
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 1
- 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.
How does Powhatan County compare?
Powhatan County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
24 Top 34% higher than 66% 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 · 2026-08-03
Powhatan County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Virginia county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Powhatan County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $4.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Drought carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High). 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 Powhatan County's hazard record show?
Declaration frequency
The FEMA register is busy by both local and national comparisons. It contains 24 entries for Powhatan County, including 16 Major Disaster records, 18% above the Virginia county mean. Across the 57-year span, that works out to 0.4 declarations a year. Hurricane leads the file with 8 entries. Declaration type records the federal action taken, not every assistance program approved.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 21.1/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $9.6M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Very Low social-vulnerability score and Relatively High community-resilience score. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Drought stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 6.5 modeled event-days per year here, based on 189 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 1 claim and $4.9K paid in total. PlainHazard calls 1-49 claims a light registry record, a label for this dataset rather than a finding that flood exposure is low. A short claims history can also reflect insurance take-up, the period covered, or losses that were never insured.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Powhatan County's 24 federal records stand 18% above the Virginia county mean of 20.4. 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.
69 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Powhatan County, VA · 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
24 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.2x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
15/25
24 declarations (1.2x state county average of 20)
Major Disaster Share High
17/25
16 of 24 declarations are major disasters (67%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Powhatan County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Virginia Avg
+18%
State avg: 20.4
vs. National Avg
+16%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.4
Over 57 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Powhatan 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
67%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
21
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Powhatan 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 High | 6.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 341 years |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 10 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 4.1 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 42 times per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 4 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 2.1 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 5.4 times per year |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 2.5 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 8,192 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 8
Severe Storm 4
Snowstorm 3
Flood 3
Biological 2
Drought 2
Winter Storm 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Powhatan County's federal record, 33% 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 - 16 66.7%
of all 24 declarations
Emergency - 8 33.3%
of all 24 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 2 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
Show 6 earlier declaration years
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 2 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 24 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 24 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3631 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-23 |
| 4863 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2025-04-04 |
| 4644 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-03-11 |
| 4602 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-05-10 |
| 4512 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-02 |
| 3448 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4411 | TROPICAL STORM MICHAEL | DR | Hurricane | 2018-12-18 |
| 3403 | HURRICANE FLORENCE | EM | Hurricane | 2018-09-11 |
| 3359 | HURRICANE SANDY | EM | Hurricane | 2012-10-29 |
| 4072 | SEVERE STORMS AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2012-07-27 |
| 4024 | HURRICANE IRENE | DR | Hurricane | 2011-09-03 |
| 3240 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-12 |
| 1491 | HURRICANE ISABEL | DR | Hurricane | 2003-09-18 |
| 1318 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-02-28 |
| 1135 | HURRICANE FRAN AND ASSOCIATED SEVERE STORM COND | DR | Hurricane | 1996-09-06 |
| 1086 | BLIZZARD OF 96 (SEVERE SNOW STORM) | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-13 |
| 1014 | SEVERE ICE STORMS, FLOODING | DR | Snowstorm | 1994-03-10 |
| 3112 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-25 |
| 755 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1985-11-09 |
| 3046 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-07-23 |
Show 4 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3018 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1976-10-15 |
| 359 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-10-10 |
| 339 | TROPICAL STORM AGNES | DR | Flood | 1972-06-23 |
| 274 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Hurricane | 1969-08-23 |
Storm Events in Virginia
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Powhatan County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 8,940 | 13 | 31 | $123.1M |
| Flood | 2,300 | 4 | 0 | $85.1M |
| Winter Weather | 2,049 | 6 | 32 | $902.0K |
| Flash Flood | 1,942 | 13 | 4 | $244.2M |
| Heavy Rain | 1,566 | 0 | 0 | $2.5M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
1
Total Paid
$4.9K
Avg Per Claim
$4.9K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 21.1/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$9.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Low
Hurricane Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Tornado Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Hail Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Cold Wave 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 Powhatan County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively High), 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
Powhatan County's closest FEMA peer: Summers County, WV
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Powhatan County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Powhatan County shows 24 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Powhatan County: 16 of 24 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Powhatan County: NRI composite 21.1 (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 Powhatan County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 24 FEMA declarations, Powhatan 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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Powhatan County?
The most common disaster type in Powhatan County is Hurricane, with 8 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (4), Snowstorm (3), Flood (3).
How does Powhatan County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Virginia average?
FEMA lists 24 declaration records for Powhatan County. That is 18% above the Virginia county mean of 20.4. Its count is also 16% 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 Powhatan County received?
Powhatan County has received 16 major disaster declarations, representing 67% of all 24 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Powhatan County filed?
Powhatan County has 1 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $4.9K in payments, with an average of $4.9K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Powhatan County?
No. In Powhatan County, Drought has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $4.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Powhatan County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Powhatan County was 1977, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1969 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Powhatan County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Powhatan County, Virginia has an overall risk score of 21.1 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very Low; on community resilience, Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $9.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Powhatan County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Powhatan County is Drought (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Earthquake (Relatively Low) and Hurricane (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 6.5 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 189 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.
What this means for Powhatan County
Powhatan County, VA has 24 federal declaration records, 18% more than the Virginia county mean of 20; its history sits in PlainHazard's high activity band.
- Within this above-state-average declaration file, major disaster leads with 16 of 24 records; the category describes past federal action, not the next likely hazard. Virginia overview
- The state benchmark and national rank point the same way: this count tops the Virginia mean and the totals for 66% of 3,266 U.S. counties. Most-disaster rankings
- A short NFIP claims file cannot establish low flood exposure; the data guide explains the limits of each federal measure. Disaster-data guide
An above-average declaration count records past federal responses; it does not predict the next event. Current warnings come from the National Weather Service and local emergency officials.
PlainHazard derives this profile from FEMA's Disaster Declarations Summaries and National Risk Index data. The declaration comparison covers 3,266 U.S. counties and county equivalents in this database, refreshed as of 2026-08-03. Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
All federal data sources used on this page
- FEMA OpenFEMA, Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 - all federally-declared disasters for this county. fema.gov/openfema/disaster-declarations
- FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) - per-county per-hazard risk ratings and expected annual loss. hazards.fema.gov/nri
- NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database - state-level storm/severe-weather event records, 2015-2025. ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainHazard Editorial
Verify with FEMA → · Verify with FEMA NRI → · Verify with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.