FEMA Records
11
Low volume
Georgia · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Quitman County, GA
11 FEMA disaster declarations (1994-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 11
- FEMA declarations
- 6
- Major disasters
- 8
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Quitman County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 11 declarations, more than 12% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 37% below the Georgia county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 8%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 8%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 11
- 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 Quitman County compare?
Quitman County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
11 12th percentile higher than 12% 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
Quitman County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Georgia county average
What does Quitman County's hazard record show?
Declaration frequency
Nationally, Quitman County's 11 FEMA records form a high-volume history; within Georgia, however, the count is 37% below the county mean. 6 entries carry the Major Disaster classification. The largest incident group is Hurricane, appearing 6 times. The full 30-year record averages 0.4 declarations annually. A DR label alone does not say whether Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, or both followed.
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's National Risk Index places this county in the low end of the national distribution, composite score 8.3/100 (Very Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $2.3M in annualized losses). Two modifiers shape how that exposure becomes real-world harm here: social vulnerability (Very High) and community resilience (Very Low). 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 52 modeled event-days per year here, based on 1,316 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 $335 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.
Start with the state benchmark: a Georgia county averages 17.4 federal declaration records, while Quitman County has 11. The gap is 37% 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.
43 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Quitman County, GA · 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
8/30
11 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.5x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
8/25
11 declarations (0.6x state county average of 17)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
6 of 11 declarations are major disasters (55%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Quitman County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Georgia Avg
-37%
State avg: 17.4
vs. National Avg
-47%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.4
Over 30 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Quitman 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
55%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
8
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Quitman 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 | 52 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 9 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 2.2 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 973 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 8 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 70 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,034 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 4.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 1.9 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 14 years |
| Winter Weather | 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 6
Biological 2
Tropical Storm 1
Severe Storm 1
Tornado 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Quitman County's federal record, 55% 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 - 6 54.5%
of all 11 declarations
Emergency - 5 45.5%
of all 11 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 2 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 11 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 11 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3616 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Tropical Storm | 2024-09-26 |
| 4501 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-29 |
| 3464 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4400 | HURRICANE MICHAEL | DR | Hurricane | 2018-10-14 |
| 3406 | HURRICANE MICHAEL | EM | Hurricane | 2018-10-10 |
| 4338 | HURRICANE IRMA | DR | Hurricane | 2017-09-15 |
| 3387 | HURRICANE IRMA | EM | Hurricane | 2017-09-08 |
| 3218 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1209 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-03-11 |
| 1071 | HURRICANE OPAL | DR | Hurricane | 1995-10-10 |
| 1033 | TORNADOES, FLOODING TORRENTIAL RAIN(TROP STORM ALBERTO) | DR | Tornado | 1994-07-07 |
Storm Events in Georgia
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Quitman County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 9,617 | 15 | 75 | $65.4M |
| Drought | 1,363 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Hail | 1,257 | 0 | 0 | $61.8M |
| Flash Flood | 1,154 | 0 | 3 | $29.3M |
| Tropical Storm | 655 | 28 | 19 | $855.3M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
1
Total Paid
$335
Avg Per Claim
$335
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 8.3/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$2.3M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively High
Hurricane Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Lightning Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Hail Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Riverine Flooding 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: 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 Quitman 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
Quitman County's closest FEMA peer: McDonough County, IL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Quitman County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Quitman County shows 11 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Quitman County: 6 of 11 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Quitman County: NRI composite 8.3 (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 Quitman County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 11 FEMA declarations, Quitman 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 Quitman County?
The most common disaster type in Quitman County is Hurricane, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Biological (2), Tropical Storm (1), Severe Storm (1).
How does Quitman County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Georgia average?
The typical Georgia county has 17.4 FEMA declaration records; Quitman County has 11, or 37% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 47% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Quitman County received?
Quitman County has received 6 major disaster declarations, representing 55% of all 11 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Quitman County filed?
Quitman County has 1 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $335 in payments, with an average of $335 per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Quitman County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Quitman County was 2017, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1994 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Quitman County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Quitman County, Georgia has an overall risk score of 8.3 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very High; on community resilience, Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $2.3M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Quitman County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Quitman County as of the latest release is Drought (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Hurricane (Relatively Low) and Cold Wave (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 52 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 1,316 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.
What this means for Quitman County
Against a Georgia county mean of 17 declarations, Quitman County, GA records 11, or 37% fewer. PlainHazard classifies that historical total as high activity.
- Major Disaster is the largest group (6 of 11) in a declaration history that remains below its state benchmark; frequency here is not a forecast. Georgia overview
- Nationally the county exceeds 12% of recorded county totals, but its own Georgia benchmark is higher. The ranking keeps those two contexts separate. 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
A below-average federal record is not a safety guarantee. Use National Weather Service alerts and local emergency-management notices for present conditions, not this historical comparison.
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.