FEMA Records
21
Above median
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Somervell County, TX
21 FEMA disaster declarations (1989-2022), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 21
- FEMA declarations
- 11
- Major disasters
- 11
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Somervell County. Its 21 FEMA declarations are 0% above the Texas county mean and exceed the count for 52% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 11%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 11%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 21
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 34
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Fire Management Assistance (FM) records, which are not presidential disaster declarations, alongside Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 48425 · Somervell County 21 declarations · rank 1503/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 21
- MAJOR-MID 52%
- RANK-LOWER #1,503
- PHOTO-FINISH Montgomery
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-ABOVE +0%
Nearest declaration peer: Montgomery, IN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Texas state profile
Somervell County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Somervell County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Atascosa · near 21
Atascosa · near
21 declarations
- Mason · near 21
Mason · near
21 declarations
- Montgomery · near 21
Montgomery · near
21 declarations
- Somervell · this county 21
Somervell · this county
21 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Somervell County carries 21 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1503 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Somervell County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Somervell County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Somervell County
21 Top 48% higher than 52% 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
Somervell County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Somervell County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $3.7M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Wildfire carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively 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 Somervell County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's National Risk Index places this county in the low end of the national distribution, composite score 10.8/100 (Very Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $7.7M in annualized losses). Two modifiers shape how that exposure becomes real-world harm here: social vulnerability (Very Low) and community resilience (Relatively High). Even the county's top-rated hazard, Wildfire, only reaches Relatively 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 191 years here.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 34 claims and $632.6K paid in total. PlainHazard calls 1-49 claims a light registry record, a label for this dataset rather than a finding that flood exposure is low. A short claims history can also reflect insurance take-up, the period covered, or losses that were never insured.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Somervell County's 21 federal records stand 0% above the Texas county mean of 20.9. 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.
61 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Somervell County, TX · 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
15/30
21 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
13/25
21 declarations (1.0x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share High
13/25
11 of 21 declarations are major disasters (52%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Somervell County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Somervell 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
52%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
11
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Somervell 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 191 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 54 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 43 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 7 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 7.3 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 14 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 51 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 14 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | an average of 2.9 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 4.1 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,908 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 6
Severe Storm 4
Hurricane 3
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Flood 2
Other 1
Drought 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Somervell County's record, 29% of its declarations. Wildfire is the one hazard here with its own dedicated federal instrument: the Fire Management Assistance Grant, which appears in this data as an FM record. An FMAG can be authorised while a fire is still burning, on a timescale of hours, because its purpose is to reimburse the cost of fighting a fire that threatens to become a major disaster.
That distinction matters when comparing counties. An FM declaration is not a presidential major disaster declaration and does not carry the same assistance programmes, so a fire-heavy county's total is not directly comparable with a hurricane-heavy county's total unless the declaration types are separated, which is why they are listed separately on this page.
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 - 11 52.4%
of all 21 declarations
Emergency - 8 38.1%
of all 21 declarations
Fire Management - 2 9.5%
of all 21 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2015 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1992 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1989 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 21 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 21 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5444 | CHALK MOUNTAIN FIRE | FM | Fire | 2022-07-19 |
| 4586 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-19 |
| 3554 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-14 |
| 4485 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3458 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4272 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2016-06-11 |
| 4223 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2015-05-29 |
| 1999 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2011-07-01 |
| 2870 | BIG TRICKLE RANCH FIRE | FM | Fire | 2011-03-12 |
| 3284 | WILDFIRES | EM | Fire | 2008-03-14 |
| 1624 | EXTREME WILDFIRE THREAT | DR | Fire | 2006-01-11 |
| 1606 | HURRICANE RITA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-09-24 |
| 3261 | HURRICANE RITA | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-21 |
| 3216 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-02 |
| 3171 | LOSS OF THE SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA | EM | Other | 2003-02-01 |
| 3142 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARDS | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
| 1239 | TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-26 |
| 3113 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Drought | 1993-09-10 |
| 930 | SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS | DR | Flood | 1991-12-26 |
| 863 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-05-02 |
Show 1 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 828 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1989-05-19 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Somervell County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hail | 14,072 | 0 | 15 | $7.4B |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 10,293 | 41 | 141 | $369.9M |
| Drought | 7,032 | 0 | 0 | $86.0K |
| Flash Flood | 4,728 | 338 | 24 | $47.6B |
| Heat | 4,079 | 119 | 405 | $0 |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
34
Total Paid
$632.6K
Avg Per Claim
$18.6K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 10.8/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$7.7M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Low
Drought Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Winter Weather Very Low
Earthquake 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: Wildfire
Wildfire risk in the model reflects fuel, terrain, weather and how much development sits in the wildland-urban interface. It is one of the few hazards where the exposure is materially changed by land management and building choices, not only by where the county happens to be.
For Somervell County the two measures on this page point the same way: Wildfire is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively Low), and Fire 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
Somervell County's closest FEMA peer: Hatillo Municipio, PR
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Somervell County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Somervell County shows 21 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Somervell County: 11 of 21 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Somervell County: NRI composite 10.8 (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 Somervell County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Somervell 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: 10.8 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 21. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 21 FEMA declarations, Somervell 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 Somervell County?
The most common disaster type in Somervell County is Fire, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (4), Hurricane (3), Severe Ice Storm (2).
How does Somervell County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
FEMA lists 21 declaration records for Somervell County. That is 0% above the Texas county mean of 20.9. Its count is also 1% 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 Somervell County received?
Somervell County has received 11 major disaster declarations, representing 52% of all 21 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Somervell County filed?
Somervell County has 34 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $632.6K in payments, with an average of $18.6K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Somervell County?
No. In Somervell County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $3.7M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Somervell County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Somervell County was 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1989 to 2022.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Somervell County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Somervell County, Texas has an overall risk score of 10.8 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 $7.7M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Somervell County?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in Somervell County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Low) and Hurricane (Very Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 191 years. The underlying methodology weighs historical event frequency against 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 Somervell County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events