FEMA Records
29
High volume
New York · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Rensselaer County, NY
29 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2021), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 29
- FEMA declarations
- 18
- Major disasters
- 82
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Rensselaer County. Its 29 FEMA declarations are 18% above the New York county mean and exceed the count for 85% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 18%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 18%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 29
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 461
- 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 36083 · Rensselaer County 29 declarations · rank 464/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 29
- MAJOR-MID 62%
- RANK-MID #464
- PHOTO-FINISH Bath
- NRI-MID 82
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-ABOVE +18%
Nearest declaration peer: Bath, KY (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · New York state profile
Rensselaer County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Rensselaer County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Bath · near 29
Bath · near
29 declarations
- Lenoir · near 29
Lenoir · near
29 declarations
- Rensselaer · this county 29
Rensselaer · this county
29 declarations
- Walthall · near 29
Walthall · near
29 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Rensselaer County carries 29 FEMA declaration records, ranked 464 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Rensselaer County ranks in the national declaration registry
Rensselaer County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Rensselaer County
29 Top 15% higher than 85% 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
Rensselaer County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Rensselaer County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $36.6M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Hail 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 Rensselaer County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 461 paid claims, totaling $5.7M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $12.3K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Rensselaer County's 29 federal records stand 18% above the New York county mean of 24.5. 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 82.2/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $49.0M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Low and community resilience Very High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Hail carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 2.9 times per year here, based on 108 historical events on record.
72 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Rensselaer County, NY · 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
21/30
29 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.4x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
15/25
29 declarations (1.2x state county average of 25)
Major Disaster Share High
16/25
18 of 29 declarations are major disasters (62%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Rensselaer County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Rensselaer 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
62%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
82
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Rensselaer 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.9 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.3 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 27 times per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 16 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 7 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 17 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 954 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 3 modeled event-days per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 2.5 times per year |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 34,509 years |
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 6
Snowstorm 5
Biological 2
Other 2
Flood 2
Fire 1
Toxic Substances 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Rensselaer County's record, 34% 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 - 18 62.1%
of all 29 declarations
Emergency - 11 37.9%
of all 29 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 3 | |
| 2009 | 2 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 3 | |
| 2001 | 2 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 2 | |
Show 5 earlier declaration years
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1988 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 29 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 29 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3565 | HURRICANE HENRI | EM | Hurricane | 2021-08-22 |
| 4480 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-20 |
| 3434 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4322 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Snowstorm | 2017-07-12 |
| 3351 | HURRICANE SANDY | EM | Hurricane | 2012-10-28 |
| 3341 | REMNANTS OF TROPICAL STORM LEE | EM | Severe Storm | 2011-09-08 |
| 4020 | HURRICANE IRENE | DR | Hurricane | 2011-08-31 |
| 1957 | SEVERE WINTER STORM AND SNOWSTORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-02-18 |
| 1827 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-03-04 |
| 3299 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Storm | 2008-12-18 |
| 1650 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-07-01 |
| 3262 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-30 |
| 1589 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2005-04-19 |
| 1534 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-08-03 |
| 1486 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-08-29 |
| 3186 | POWER OUTAGE | EM | Other | 2003-08-23 |
| 3173 | SNOWSTORMS | EM | Snowstorm | 2003-02-25 |
| 1391 | FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS | DR | Fire | 2001-09-11 |
| 3155 | WEST NILE VIRUS | EM | Other | 2000-10-11 |
| 1335 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-07-21 |
Show 9 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1296 | HURRICANE FLOYD MAJOR DISASTER DECLARATIONS | DR | Hurricane | 1999-09-19 |
| 1222 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-06-16 |
| 1095 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1996-01-24 |
| 1083 | BLIZZARD OF 96 (SEVERE SNOW STORM) | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-12 |
| 3107 | SEVERE BLIZZARD | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-17 |
| 801 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Snowstorm | 1987-11-10 |
| 3066 | CHEMICAL WASTE, LOVE CANAL | EM | Toxic Substances | 1978-08-07 |
| 520 | HURRICANE BELLE | DR | Hurricane | 1976-09-03 |
| 401 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-07-20 |
Storm Events in New York
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Rensselaer County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 8,295 | 6 | 45 | $45.0M |
| Winter Weather | 2,261 | 7 | 17 | $705.5K |
| Flash Flood | 1,775 | 23 | 3 | $674.3M |
| Strong Wind | 1,399 | 2 | 12 | $9.2M |
| Winter Storm | 1,228 | 13 | 2 | $4.9M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
461
Total Paid
$5.7M
Avg Per Claim
$12.3K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 82.2/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$49.0M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Very High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hail Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Avalanche Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Coastal Flooding No Rating
Drought 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: Hail
Hail is among the most expensive hazards in the model relative to how little it threatens life. It concentrates on roofs, vehicles and crops, and a single severe storm can generate an insurance loss across a metropolitan area without a single injury.
For Rensselaer County the two measures on this page point the same way: Hail is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Moderate), and Severe Storm declarations also lead its federal record. Where the model and the declaration history agree, the reading is comparatively straightforward, the hazard is both expected and repeatedly realised.
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
Rensselaer County's closest FEMA peer: Juana Díaz Municipio, PR
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Rensselaer County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Rensselaer County shows 29 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Rensselaer County: 18 of 29 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Rensselaer County: NRI composite 82.2 (Relatively Moderate).
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 Rensselaer County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Rensselaer 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: 82.2 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 29. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Rensselaer County's NFIP claims file (461 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 Rensselaer County?
The most common disaster type in Rensselaer County is Severe Storm, with 10 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (6), Snowstorm (5), Biological (2).
How does Rensselaer County's FEMA declaration record compare with the New York average?
FEMA lists 29 declaration records for Rensselaer County. That is 18% above the New York county mean of 24.5. Its count is also 40% 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 Rensselaer County received?
Rensselaer County has received 18 major disaster declarations, representing 62% of all 29 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Rensselaer County filed?
Rensselaer County has 461 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $5.7M in payments, with an average of $12.3K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Rensselaer County?
No. In Rensselaer County, Hail has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $36.6M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Rensselaer County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Rensselaer County was 2003, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2021.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Rensselaer County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Rensselaer County, New York has an overall risk score of 82.2 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Low; on community resilience, Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $49.0M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Rensselaer County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Rensselaer County is Hail (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Riverine Flooding (Relatively Moderate) and Lightning (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hail here at an average of 2.9 times per year, drawn from 108 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Rensselaer County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · New York profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events