FEMA Records
14
Low volume
Virginia · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Salem (city), VA
14 FEMA disaster declarations (1972-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 14
- FEMA declarations
- 8
- Major disasters
- 19
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Salem (city) has a nationally busy FEMA history: 14 declarations, more than 20% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 31% below the Virginia county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 19%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 19%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 14
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 812
- 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 51775 · Salem (city) 14 declarations · rank 2615/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 14
- MAJOR-MID 57%
- RANK-LOWER #2,615
- PHOTO-FINISH Pulaski
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -31%
Nearest declaration peer: Pulaski, IL (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Virginia state profile
Salem (city) in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among this county and nearest peers
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Franklin (city) · near 14
Franklin (city) · near
14 declarations
- Harris · near 14
Harris · near
14 declarations
- Pulaski · near 14
Pulaski · near
14 declarations
- Salem (city) · this county 14
Salem (city) · this county
14 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Salem (city) carries 14 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2615 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How does Salem (city) compare?
Salem (city) vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
14 20th percentile higher than 20% 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
Salem (city)'s FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Salem (city) is led by Riverine Flooding (about $7.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), while Hurricane carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Very 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 Salem (city)'s hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 812 claims and $18.9M in payments. PlainHazard labels 500 or more claims a heavy registry record; that is a reporting bucket, not an official FEMA risk grade. The average paid claim was $23.2K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
Start with the state benchmark: a Virginia county averages 20.4 federal declaration records, while Salem (city) has 14. The gap is 31% 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's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 18.6/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $9.0M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Very Low social-vulnerability score and Relatively High community-resilience score. Even the county's top-rated hazard, Hurricane, only reaches Very 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 19 years here, based on 2 historical events on record.
48 /100
Historical Activity Index
Moderate historical activity
Salem (city), VA · 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
10/30
14 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.7x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
9/25
14 declarations (0.7x state county average of 20)
Major Disaster Share High
14/25
8 of 14 declarations are major disasters (57%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Salem (city)
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Salem (city)
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
57%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
19
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Salem (city)?
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 | Very Low | roughly once every 19 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 733 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 3.4 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 45 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 59 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 9.5 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | an average of 2.9 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 4.1 times per year |
| Tornado | Very Low | roughly once every 404 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 0.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 52,132 years |
| Drought | No Rating | 1.7 modeled event-days per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 3
Severe Storm 3
Flood 3
Biological 2
Snowstorm 2
Winter Storm 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Salem (city)'s record, 21% of its declarations. Federal flood declarations cover two mechanisms that behave very differently: riverine flooding, which builds over days as a watershed drains and is usually forecast well in advance, and flash flooding, which can arrive in under an hour from rainfall that fell somewhere upstream.
Flood is also the one hazard class where a second federal dataset exists for the same events. The National Flood Insurance Program records what was actually paid on insured losses, so it measures a narrower thing than the declaration count: uninsured damage, and flooding outside mapped special flood hazard areas, never enters it. Reading the two together is more informative than either alone.
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 - 8 57.1%
of all 14 declarations
Emergency - 6 42.9%
of all 14 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2018 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 14 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 14 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3631 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-23 |
| 4512 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-02 |
| 3448 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 3403 | HURRICANE FLORENCE | EM | Hurricane | 2018-09-11 |
| 3359 | HURRICANE SANDY | EM | Hurricane | 2012-10-29 |
| 4072 | SEVERE STORMS AND STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Severe Storm | 2012-07-27 |
| 3240 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-12 |
| 1570 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING FROM THE REMANANTS OF HURRICANE JEANNE | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-10-18 |
| 1458 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, RECORD/NEAR RECORD SNOWFALL, HEAVY RAIN,FLOODIND, AND MUDSLIDE | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-03-27 |
| 1086 | BLIZZARD OF 96 (SEVERE SNOW STORM) | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-13 |
| 3112 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-25 |
| 944 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1992-05-19 |
| 755 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1985-11-09 |
| 339 | TROPICAL STORM AGNES | DR | Flood | 1972-06-23 |
Storm Events in Virginia
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Salem (city).
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 8,940 | 13 | 31 | $123.1M |
| Flood | 2,300 | 4 | 0 | $85.1M |
| Winter Weather | 2,049 | 6 | 32 | $902.0K |
| Flash Flood | 1,942 | 13 | 4 | $244.2M |
| Heavy Rain | 1,566 | 0 | 0 | $2.5M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
812
Total Paid
$18.9M
Avg Per Claim
$23.2K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 18.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$9.0M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Hurricane Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Hail Very Low
Tornado Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
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: 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 Salem (city): the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Hurricane carries the highest modeled rating (Very Low), while the county's declaration history is led by Flood. 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
Salem (city)'s closest FEMA peer: Erie County, OH
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Salem (city). Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Salem (city) shows 14 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Salem (city): 8 of 14 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Salem (city): NRI composite 18.6 (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 Salem (city) - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Salem (city): 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: 18.6 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 14. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Salem (city)'s NFIP claims file (812 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 Salem (city)?
The most common disaster type in Salem (city) is Flood, with 3 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (3), Severe Storm (3), Biological (2).
How does Salem (city)'s FEMA declaration record compare with the Virginia average?
The typical Virginia county has 20.4 FEMA declaration records; Salem (city) has 14, or 31% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 32% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Salem (city) received?
Salem (city) has received 8 major disaster declarations, representing 57% of all 14 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Salem (city) filed?
Salem (city) has 812 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $18.9M in payments, with an average of $23.2K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Salem (city)?
No. In Salem (city), Hurricane has the highest National Risk Index rating (Very Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $7.3M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Salem (city)?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Salem (city) was 2005, with 2 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1972 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Salem (city)?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Salem (city), Virginia has an overall risk score of 18.6 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $9.0M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Salem (city)?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Salem (city) is Hurricane (risk rating: Very Low). Other significant hazards include Earthquake (Very Low) and Riverine Flooding (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hurricane here at roughly once every 19 years, drawn from 2 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.
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
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.