FEMA Records
24
Above median
West Virginia · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Putnam County, WV
24 FEMA disaster declarations (1967-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 24
- FEMA declarations
- 17
- Major disasters
- 74
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Putnam County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 24 declarations, more than 66% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 1% below the West Virginia county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 26%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 26%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 24
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 290
- 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 54079 · Putnam County 24 declarations · rank 1041/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 24
- MAJOR-MID 71%
- RANK-LOWER #1,041
- PHOTO-FINISH Eddy
- NRI-LOW 74
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -1%
Nearest declaration peer: Eddy, ND (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · West Virginia state profile
Putnam County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Putnam County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Deuel · near 24
Deuel · near
24 declarations
- Eddy · near 24
Eddy · near
24 declarations
- Putnam · this county 24
Putnam · this county
24 declarations
- Wichita · near 24
Wichita · near
24 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Putnam County carries 24 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1041 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Putnam County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Putnam County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Putnam County
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 · 2026-08-25
Putnam County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Putnam County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $29.9M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), 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 Putnam County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 290 paid claims, totaling $3.3M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $11.4K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a West Virginia county averages 24.2 federal declaration records, while Putnam County has 24. The gap is 1% 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 carries a high composite score on FEMA's National Risk Index, 74.0/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $33.8M in annualized losses), and a Relatively Low social-vulnerability profile combined with Relatively Moderate community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. 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 roughly once every 1 years here.
67 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Putnam 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
24 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.2x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
24 declarations (1.0x state county average of 24)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
17 of 24 declarations are major disasters (71%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Putnam County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Putnam 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
71%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
74
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Putnam 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 | roughly once every 1 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.3 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 4.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 48 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 39 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,188 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 4.7 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 914 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 8.6 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 2.9 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 18 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 11
Flood 4
Biological 2
Hurricane 2
Snowstorm 2
Winter Storm 1
Severe Ice Storm 1
Chemical 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Putnam County's record, 46% 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 - 17 70.8%
of all 24 declarations
Emergency - 7 29.2%
of all 24 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 3 | |
| 2003 | 2 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
Show 4 earlier declaration years
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1980 | 1 | |
| 1967 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3639 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4783 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2024-05-22 |
| 4603 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-05-13 |
| 4517 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-03 |
| 3450 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4210 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-03-31 |
| 3366 | CHEMICAL SPILL | EM | Chemical | 2014-01-10 |
| 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 |
| 1696 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES, AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-05-01 |
| 3221 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1558 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-09-20 |
| 1522 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-06-07 |
| 1500 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-11-21 |
| 1474 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-06-21 |
| 1455 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, RECORD/NEAR RECORD SNOW, HEAVY RAINS, FLOODING AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-03-14 |
| 1378 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2001-06-03 |
| 1319 | FLOODING, SEVERE STORMS, AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Flood | 2000-02-28 |
| 1168 | HEAVY & WIND DRIVEN RAIN, HIGH WINDS,FLOODING,SLIDES | DR | Flood | 1997-03-07 |
Show 4 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1084 | BLIZZARD OF 96 (SEVERE SNOW STORM) | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-13 |
| 3109 | SEVERE SNOWFALL & WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-17 |
| 628 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1980-08-15 |
| 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 Putnam 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
290
Total Paid
$3.3M
Avg Per Claim
$11.4K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 74.0/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$33.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Landslide Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Drought Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Tornado 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: 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 Putnam 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 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
Putnam County's closest FEMA peer: Rankin County, MS
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Putnam County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Putnam County shows 24 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Putnam County: 17 of 24 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Putnam County: NRI composite 74.0 (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 Putnam County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Putnam 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: 74.0 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 24. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Putnam County's NFIP claims file (290 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 Putnam County?
The most common disaster type in Putnam County is Severe Storm, with 11 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (4), Biological (2), Hurricane (2).
How does Putnam County's FEMA declaration record compare with the West Virginia average?
The typical West Virginia county has 24.2 FEMA declaration records; Putnam County has 24, or 1% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 16% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Putnam County received?
Putnam County has received 17 major disaster declarations, representing 71% of all 24 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Putnam County filed?
Putnam County has 290 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $3.3M in payments, with an average of $11.4K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Putnam County?
No. In Putnam County, Landslide has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $29.9M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Putnam County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Putnam County was 2004, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1967 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Putnam County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Putnam County, West Virginia has an overall risk score of 74.0 out of 100 (Relatively Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Low; on community resilience, Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $33.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Putnam County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Putnam County as of the latest release is Landslide (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Riverine Flooding (Relatively Moderate) and Heat Wave (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts landslide here at roughly once every 1 years. 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 Putnam County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · West Virginia profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events