FEMA Records
26
High volume
Arkansas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Searcy County, AR
26 FEMA disaster declarations (1969-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 26
- FEMA declarations
- 19
- Major disasters
- 28
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Searcy County. Its 26 FEMA declarations are 7% above the Arkansas county mean and exceed the count for 75% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 28%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 28%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 26
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 11
- severe storm declarations, the most common hazard here
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 05129 · Searcy County 26 declarations · rank 798/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 26
- MAJOR-MID 73%
- RANK-MID #798
- PHOTO-FINISH Hunterdon
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-ABOVE +7%
Nearest declaration peer: Hunterdon, NJ (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Arkansas state profile
Searcy County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Searcy County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Hunterdon · near 26
Hunterdon · near
26 declarations
- Pierce · near 26
Pierce · near
26 declarations
- San Sebastián · near 26
San Sebastián · near
26 declarations
- Searcy · this county 26
Searcy · this county
26 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Searcy County carries 26 FEMA declaration records, ranked 798 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Searcy County ranks in the national declaration registry
Searcy County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Searcy County
26 Top 25% higher than 75% 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
Searcy County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Searcy County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 27.7/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $6.4M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Very High social-vulnerability score and Relatively Low community-resilience score. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Ice Storm stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Very High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 1.9 times per year here, based on 131 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
No paid-claim row for this county appears in the NFIP county table used by PlainHazard. That absence is not evidence that flooding never occurred: the register observes claims under federal flood-insurance policies, not uninsured losses, emergency reports, or every flood outside the program. The FEMA declaration history below is therefore the available federal-action record on this page.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Searcy County's 26 federal records stand 7% above the Arkansas county mean of 24.2. 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.
68 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Searcy County, AR · 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
19/30
26 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.3x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
13/25
26 declarations (1.1x state county average of 24)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
19 of 26 declarations are major disasters (73%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Searcy County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Searcy 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
73%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
28
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Searcy 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ice Storm | Very High | an average of 1.9 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | an average of 1.9 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 265 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 340 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 59 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 9 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 8.2 modeled event-days per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 2.3 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 3.3 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 167 years |
| Hail | Very Low | an average of 5.1 times per year |
| Drought | No Rating | 11 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
Severe Storm 11
Flood 4
Severe Ice Storm 4
Winter Storm 2
Hurricane 2
Biological 2
Drought 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Searcy County's record, 42% 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 - 19 73.1%
of all 26 declarations
Emergency - 7 26.9%
of all 26 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2025 | 2 | |
| 2023 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 3 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
Show 6 earlier declaration years
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 1 | |
| 1983 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 26 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 26 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3636 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4873 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2025-05-21 |
| 3627 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | EM | Severe Storm | 2025-04-05 |
| 4700 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Winter Storm | 2023-04-04 |
| 3541 | HURRICANE LAURA | EM | Hurricane | 2020-08-27 |
| 4518 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-03 |
| 3461 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4441 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-06-08 |
| 4318 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2017-06-15 |
| 4254 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-02-05 |
| 4226 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-06-26 |
| 4160 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2014-01-06 |
| 4124 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2013-06-25 |
| 1975 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND ASSOCIATED FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2011-05-02 |
| 1845 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-06-16 |
| 1819 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2009-02-06 |
| 3301 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2009-01-28 |
| 1751 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-03-26 |
| 3215 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-02 |
| 1516 | SEVER STORMS, FLOODING AND LANDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2004-05-07 |
Show 6 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1450 | SEVERE ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2003-01-06 |
| 1354 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2000-12-29 |
| 1176 | FLOODING, SEVERE STORMS | DR | Flood | 1997-04-14 |
| 673 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1982-12-13 |
| 3019 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1976-12-03 |
| 254 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1969-02-15 |
Storm Events in Arkansas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Searcy County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 3,657 | 10 | 23 | $60.9M |
| Hail | 2,230 | 0 | 0 | $7.7M |
| Flash Flood | 1,517 | 12 | 3 | $15.9M |
| Heat | 1,222 | 2 | 325 | $0 |
| Flood | 1,152 | 9 | 0 | $40.2M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 27.7/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$6.4M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Ice Storm Very High
Landslide Relatively Low
Wildfire Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Hurricane Very Low
Hail 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: Ice Storm
Ice storms load power lines and tree limbs with accumulating freezing rain until they fail. The characteristic cost is infrastructure and multi-day power loss across a wide area rather than structural damage to buildings, which is why their consequences often outlast the weather that caused them.
Worth noting for Searcy County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Ice Storm carries the highest modeled rating (Very 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
Searcy County's closest FEMA peer: Greene County, VA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Searcy County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Searcy County shows 26 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Searcy County: 19 of 26 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Searcy County: NRI composite 27.7 (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 Searcy County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Searcy 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: 27.7 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 26. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 26 FEMA declarations, Searcy 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 Searcy County?
The most common disaster type in Searcy County is Severe Storm, with 11 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (4), Severe Ice Storm (4), Winter Storm (2).
How does Searcy County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Arkansas average?
FEMA lists 26 declaration records for Searcy County. That is 7% above the Arkansas county mean of 24.2. Its count is also 25% 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 Searcy County received?
Searcy County has received 19 major disaster declarations, representing 73% of all 26 disaster declarations.
What was the worst year for disasters in Searcy County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Searcy County was 2009, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1969 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Searcy County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Searcy County, Arkansas has an overall risk score of 27.7 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very High, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $6.4M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Searcy County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Searcy County is Ice Storm (risk rating: Very High). Other significant hazards include Landslide (Relatively Low) and Wildfire (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts ice storm here at an average of 1.9 times per year, drawn from 131 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.
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 Searcy County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Arkansas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events