FEMA Records
17
Below median
Tennessee · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Rutherford County, TN
17 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 17
- FEMA declarations
- 12
- Major disasters
- 92
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Rutherford County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 17 declarations, more than 32% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 21% below the Tennessee county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 8%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 8%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 17
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 452
- 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 47149 · Rutherford County 17 declarations · rank 2116/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 17
- MAJOR-MID 71%
- RANK-LOWER #2,116
- PHOTO-FINISH Curry
- NRI-MID 92
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -21%
Nearest declaration peer: Curry, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Tennessee state profile
Rutherford County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Rutherford County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Curry · near 17
Curry · near
17 declarations
- Murray · near 17
Murray · near
17 declarations
- Rutherford · this county 17
Rutherford · this county
17 declarations
- Washington · near 17
Washington · near
17 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Rutherford County carries 17 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2116 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Rutherford County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Rutherford County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Rutherford County
17 32nd percentile higher than 32% 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
Rutherford County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Rutherford County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $70.5M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Cold Wave 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 Rutherford County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 452 paid claims, totaling $7.1M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $15.6K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Tennessee county averages 21.4 federal declaration records, while Rutherford County has 17. The gap is 21% 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 sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 91.7/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $134.9M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very Low and community resilience Relatively Moderate, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Cold Wave stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 1.2 times per year here, based on 22 historical events on record.
58 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Rutherford County, TN · 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
12/30
17 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25
17 declarations (0.8x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
12 of 17 declarations are major disasters (71%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Rutherford County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Rutherford 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
92
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Rutherford 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Wave | Relatively High | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very High | an average of 5.3 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively High | roughly once every 2 years |
| Earthquake | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 307 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively High | an average of 2.2 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 60 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively High | an average of 6.1 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Moderate | 4.6 modeled event-days per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 3.6 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 37 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 16 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 22,507 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 8
Winter Storm 2
Biological 2
Flood 2
Hurricane 1
Snowstorm 1
Tornado 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Rutherford County's record, 47% 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 - 12 70.6%
of all 17 declarations
Emergency - 5 29.4%
of all 17 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | |
| 2025 | 1 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 2 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1975 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 17 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 17 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4898 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Winter Storm | 2026-02-06 |
| 3635 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 3625 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | EM | Severe Storm | 2025-04-02 |
| 4701 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2023-04-07 |
| 4514 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-02 |
| 3473 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 1909 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-05-04 |
| 1839 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-05-15 |
| 3217 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1464 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-05-08 |
| 1441 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOS | DR | Severe Storm | 2002-11-13 |
| 1010 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM,FLASH FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-02-28 |
| 3095 | SEVERE SNOWFALL, WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-14 |
| 585 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1979-05-07 |
| 459 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1975-03-22 |
| 424 | TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1974-04-04 |
| 366 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-03-21 |
Storm Events in Tennessee
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Rutherford County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 6,558 | 22 | 58 | $107.0M |
| Hail | 1,690 | 0 | 0 | $545.5K |
| Heat | 1,343 | 9 | 15 | $0 |
| Flash Flood | 1,264 | 55 | 3 | $334.4M |
| Winter Weather | 1,088 | 5 | 0 | $261.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
452
Total Paid
$7.1M
Avg Per Claim
$15.6K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 91.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$134.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Relatively High
Winter Weather Very High
Tornado Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively High
Lightning Relatively High
Strong Wind Relatively High
Heat Wave Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Drought Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Landslide 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: Cold Wave
Cold Wave measures exposure to extreme cold rather than to snow. Its harm is concentrated in health effects, burst infrastructure and energy demand spikes, and it falls hardest where the building stock and the grid were not built with sustained cold in mind.
Worth noting for Rutherford County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively High), 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
Rutherford County's closest FEMA peer: Sangamon County, IL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Rutherford County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Rutherford County: NRI composite 91.7 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar Major-disaster share
Rutherford County: 12 of 17 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Rutherford County shows 17 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
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 Rutherford County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Rutherford 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: 91.7 (Relatively Moderate).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 17. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Rutherford County's NFIP claims file (452 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 Rutherford County?
The most common disaster type in Rutherford County is Severe Storm, with 8 declarations. Other disaster types include Winter Storm (2), Biological (2), Flood (2).
How does Rutherford County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Tennessee average?
The typical Tennessee county has 21.4 FEMA declaration records; Rutherford County has 17, or 21% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 18% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Rutherford County received?
Rutherford County has received 12 major disaster declarations, representing 71% of all 17 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Rutherford County filed?
Rutherford County has 452 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $7.1M in payments, with an average of $15.6K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Rutherford County?
No. In Rutherford County, Cold Wave has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $70.5M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Rutherford County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Rutherford County was 2003, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Rutherford County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Rutherford County, Tennessee has an overall risk score of 91.7 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $134.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Rutherford County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Rutherford County as of the latest release is Cold Wave (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Winter Weather (Very High) and Tornado (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 1.2 times per year, drawn from 22 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 Rutherford County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Tennessee profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events