FEMA Records
25
High volume
Alabama · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Randolph County, AL
25 FEMA disaster declarations (1977-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 25
- FEMA declarations
- 15
- Major disasters
- 31
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Randolph County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 25 declarations, more than 71% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 3% below the Alabama county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 31%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 31%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 25
- 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 01111 · Randolph County 25 declarations · rank 885/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-HEAVY 25
- MAJOR-MID 60%
- RANK-LOWER #885
- PHOTO-FINISH Jefferson
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -3%
Nearest declaration peer: Jefferson, AR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Alabama state profile
Randolph County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Randolph County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Benton · near 25
Benton · near
25 declarations
- Jefferson · near 25
Jefferson · near
25 declarations
- Lafayette · near 25
Lafayette · near
25 declarations
- Randolph · this county 25
Randolph · this county
25 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Randolph County carries 25 FEMA declaration records, ranked 885 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Randolph County ranks in the national declaration registry
Randolph County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Randolph County
25 Top 29% higher than 71% 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
Randolph County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Randolph County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $4.1M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Hurricane carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low). 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 Randolph County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 30.6/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $7.9M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively High) and community resilience (Relatively Low) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Hurricane, only reaches Relatively Low on FEMA's scale, none of the 18 modeled hazards stand out here. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 16 years here, based on 22 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 $15.8K 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 Alabama county averages 25.8 federal declaration records, while Randolph County has 25. The gap is 3% 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.
60 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Randolph 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) High
18/30
25 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.2x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
25 declarations (1.0x state county average of 26)
Major Disaster Share High
15/25
15 of 25 declarations are major disasters (60%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Randolph County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Randolph 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
60%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
31
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Randolph 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 16 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 320 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 610 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 4.4 modeled event-days per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 44 modeled event-days per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 4.3 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 62 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 2.2 times per year |
| 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
Severe Storm 10
Hurricane 9
Biological 2
Flood 2
Snowstorm 1
Drought 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Randolph County's record, 40% 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 - 15 60.0%
of all 25 declarations
Emergency - 10 40.0%
of all 25 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 4 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 2 | |
Show 2 earlier declaration years
| 1979 | 2 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 25 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 25 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 |
| 4710 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-05-05 |
| 4596 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2021-04-26 |
| 4573 | HURRICANE ZETA | DR | Hurricane | 2020-12-10 |
| 3545 | HURRICANE SALLY | EM | Hurricane | 2020-09-14 |
| 4546 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2020-05-21 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 1593 | HURRICANE DENNIS | DR | Hurricane | 2005-07-10 |
| 1549 | HURRICANE IVAN | DR | Hurricane | 2004-09-15 |
| 1466 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-05-12 |
| 1208 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-03-09 |
| 1070 | HURRICANE OPAL | DR | Hurricane | 1995-10-04 |
| 1034 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING (TROPICAL STORM ALBERTO) | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-07-08 |
| 3096 | SEVERE SNOWFALL, WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-15 |
Show 5 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 861 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-03-21 |
| 856 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-02-17 |
| 578 | STORMS, WIND, FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1979-04-18 |
| 3074 | FLOODING | EM | Flood | 1979-03-17 |
| 3045 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-07-20 |
Storm Events in Alabama
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Randolph 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
1
Total Paid
$15.8K
Avg Per Claim
$15.8K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 30.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$7.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hurricane Relatively Low
Landslide Relatively Low
Wildfire Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively 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: Hurricane
Hurricane exposure in the model bundles the three ways a tropical system does harm, which arrive on different timescales and are insured differently: wind, storm surge on the coast, and rainfall flooding that can reach far inland well after landfall.
Worth noting for Randolph County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Hurricane carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Low), 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
Randolph County's closest FEMA peer: Brown County, TX
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Randolph County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Randolph County shows 25 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Randolph County: 15 of 25 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Randolph County: NRI composite 30.6 (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 Randolph County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Randolph 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: 30.6 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 25. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 25 FEMA declarations, Randolph 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).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Randolph County?
The most common disaster type in Randolph County is Severe Storm, with 10 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (9), Biological (2), Flood (2).
How does Randolph County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Alabama average?
The typical Alabama county has 25.8 FEMA declaration records; Randolph County has 25, or 3% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 21% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Randolph County received?
Randolph County has received 15 major disaster declarations, representing 60% of all 25 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Randolph County filed?
Randolph County has 1 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $15.8K in payments, with an average of $15.8K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Randolph County?
No. In Randolph County, Hurricane has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $4.1M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Randolph County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Randolph County was 2020, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1977 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Randolph County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Randolph County, Alabama has an overall risk score of 30.6 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively High; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $7.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Randolph County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Randolph County as of the latest release is Hurricane (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Landslide (Relatively Low) and Wildfire (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hurricane here at roughly once every 16 years, drawn from 22 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Randolph County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Alabama profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events