FEMA Records
24
Above median
Alabama · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Russell County, AL
24 FEMA disaster declarations (1976-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 24
- FEMA declarations
- 14
- Major disasters
- 55
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Russell 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 7% below the Alabama county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 45%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 45%
- 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
- 60
- 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 Russell County compare?
Russell 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
Russell County's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Alabama county average
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Russell County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $9.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively High), while Lightning 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 Russell County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 60 paid claims, totaling $1.1M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $18.0K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Alabama county averages 25.8 federal declaration records, while Russell County has 24. The gap is 7% 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, 54.7/100, rated Relatively Low. Its Expected Annual Loss rating is Relatively Low (roughly $14.7M in annualized losses), and a Relatively High social-vulnerability profile combined with Very Low community resilience shapes how much of that raw exposure becomes realized harm. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Lightning stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 67 times per year here, based on 120,786 historical events on record.
Declaration frequency
Nationally, Russell County's 24 FEMA records form a high-volume history; within Alabama, however, the count is 7% below the county mean. 14 entries carry the Major Disaster classification. The largest incident group is Severe Storm, appearing 11 times. The full 48-year record averages 0.5 declarations annually. A DR label alone does not say whether Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, or both followed.
57 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Russell 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
17/30
24 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.2x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
12/25
24 declarations (0.9x state county average of 26)
Major Disaster Share High
15/25
14 of 24 declarations are major disasters (58%)
Hazard Diversity High
13/20
5 different disaster types declared in Russell County
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Alabama Avg
-7%
State avg: 25.8
vs. National Avg
+16%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.5
Over 48 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Russell 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
58%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
55
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Russell 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 67 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 8.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 47 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 10 years |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 1,025 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 672 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 2.3 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 1.4 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 3 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
Hurricane 9
Biological 2
Snowstorm 1
Drought 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Russell 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 - 14 58.3%
of all 24 declarations
Emergency - 10 41.7%
of all 24 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
Show 4 earlier declaration years
| 1990 | 2 | |
| 1981 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3618 | HURRICANE HELENE | EM | Hurricane | 2024-09-26 |
| 3545 | HURRICANE SALLY | EM | Hurricane | 2020-09-14 |
| 4503 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-29 |
| 3472 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 3407 | HURRICANE MICHAEL | EM | Hurricane | 2018-10-12 |
| 3389 | HURRICANE IRMA | EM | Hurricane | 2017-09-11 |
| 4251 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-01-21 |
| 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 |
| 1870 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-12-31 |
| 1835 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, TORNADOES & STRAIGHT-LINE | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-04-28 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 861 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-03-21 |
Show 4 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 856 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-02-17 |
| 638 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1981-04-10 |
| 3045 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1977-07-20 |
| 488 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1975-10-02 |
Storm Events in Alabama
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Russell 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
60
Total Paid
$1.1M
Avg Per Claim
$18.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 54.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$14.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Lightning Relatively High
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Relatively Low
Landslide Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Hail Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Winter Weather 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: Lightning
Lightning is modeled as a high-frequency, low-per-event hazard: strike counts are large, but each strike affects a very small area. Its aggregate cost accumulates through structure fires, electrical and electronic damage, and it is one of the few hazards whose risk is essentially continuous through the season rather than episodic.
For Russell County the two measures on this page point the same way: Lightning is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively High), 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
Russell County's closest FEMA peer: Kings County, NY
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Russell County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Russell County shows 24 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Russell County: 14 of 24 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Russell County: NRI composite 54.7 (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 Russell County - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Russell County's NFIP claims file (60 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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Russell County?
The most common disaster type in Russell County is Severe Storm, with 11 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (9), Biological (2), Snowstorm (1).
How does Russell County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Alabama average?
The typical Alabama county has 25.8 FEMA declaration records; Russell County has 24, or 7% 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 Russell County received?
Russell County has received 14 major disaster declarations, representing 58% of all 24 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Russell County filed?
Russell County has 60 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $1.1M in payments, with an average of $18.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Russell County?
No. In Russell County, Lightning has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $9.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Russell County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Russell County was 2020, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1976 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Russell County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Russell County, Alabama has an overall risk score of 54.7 out of 100 (Relatively Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively High and community resilience is Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $14.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Russell County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Russell County is Lightning (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Heat Wave (Relatively Low) and Drought (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts lightning here at an average of 67 times per year, drawn from 120,786 historical events on record. 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.
What this means for Russell County
Against a Alabama county mean of 26 declarations, Russell County, AL records 24, or 7% fewer. PlainHazard classifies that historical total as high activity.
- Major Disaster is the largest group (14 of 24) in a declaration history that remains below its state benchmark; frequency here is not a forecast. Alabama overview
- Nationally the county exceeds 66% of recorded county totals, but its own Alabama benchmark is higher. The ranking keeps those two contexts separate. Most-disaster rankings
- Use the data guide to separate this mid-volume insurance-claims file from declaration counts and modeled NRI risk. 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.