PlainHazard

If you are in immediate danger, call 911.

The data below is historical (NOAA Storm Events / FEMA), not a live alert. For current warnings and evacuation orders, check the National Weather Service, Ready.gov, or FEMA.gov.

Louisiana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index

St. Martin Parish, LA

54 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Hurricane.

54
FEMA declarations
34
Major disasters
87
NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
Hurricane
Top hazard

The verdict

Two federal records point in the busier direction for St. Martin Parish. Its 54 FEMA declarations are 31% above the Louisiana county mean and exceed the count for 99% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 13%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.

Riskiest 13%
of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
Relatively Moderate
FEMA National Risk Index rating
54
FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
1,466
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.

View my watchlist

How does St. Martin Parish compare?

St. Martin Parish vs. all counties in this dataset

FEMA disaster declarations, all-time

54 Top 1% higher than 99% of 3,266 counties

This county 0 90 all U.S. counties FEMA tracks, bucketed by value

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

St. Martin Parish's FEMA Risk Index score

FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Louisiana county average

0/100100/100Louisiana avg62/10087.3/100
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Louisiana county average

What does St. Martin Parish's hazard record show?

Reading the federal records together

FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 1,466 claims and $28.1M 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 $19.2K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.

The declaration register points in the busier direction. St. Martin Parish's 54 federal records stand 31% above the Louisiana county mean of 41.4. 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.

FEMA National Risk Index

This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 87.3/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $47.0M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very High and community resilience Very High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Hurricane stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 5 years here, based on 73 historical events on record.

Declaration frequency

The FEMA register is busy by both local and national comparisons. It contains 54 entries for St. Martin Parish, including 34 Major Disaster records, 31% above the Louisiana county mean. Across the 61-year span, that works out to 0.9 declarations a year. Hurricane leads the file with 29 entries. Declaration type records the federal action taken, not every assistance program approved.

82 /100

Historical Activity Index

Very High historical activity

St. Martin Parish, LA · 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) Very High
30/30

54 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (2.6x national county average)

County Disaster Density High
16/25

54 declarations (1.3x state county average of 41)

Major Disaster Share High
16/25

34 of 54 declarations are major disasters (63%)

Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20

8 different disaster types declared in St. Martin Parish

Historical Declaration Activity

Activity Band

High

vs. Louisiana Avg

+31%

State avg: 41.4

vs. National Avg

+161%

National avg: 20.7

Avg Per Year

0.9

Over 61 years

FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - St. Martin Parish

St. Martin Parish NRI risk profile 8-axis FEMA National Risk Index radar showing per-hazard scores for Earthquake 8, Flood 70, Hurricane 70, Tornado 48, Wildfire 8, Drought 70, Heat Wave 25, Winter Storm 70. The simple mean of these eight displayed scores is 46 of 100. Earthquake Flood Hurricane Tornado Wildfire Drought Heat Wave Winter Storm 46 8-hazard mean
St. Martin Parish NRI risk profile FIPS 22099 · displayed-hazard mean 46/100
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.

FEMA Records

54

Very high volume

Major Disaster share

63%

Major-heavy

NRI risk score

87

Relatively Moderate

Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release

How often does each hazard strike St. Martin Parish?

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 Relatively High roughly once every 5 years
Drought Relatively High 22 modeled event-days per year
Cold Wave Relatively High an average of 1 time per year
Tornado Relatively Moderate roughly once every 2 years
Lightning Relatively High an average of 87 times per year
Coastal Flooding Relatively High an average of 3.7 times per year
Heat Wave Relatively Low 10 modeled event-days per year
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate roughly once every 2 years
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low an average of 1 time per year
Winter Weather Relatively Low roughly once every 1 years
Earthquake Very Low roughly once every 1,208 years
Strong Wind Relatively Low roughly once every 1 years
Landslide Very Low roughly once every 8 years
Wildfire Very Low roughly once every 19,829 years
Hail Very Low an average of 1.2 times per year

Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release

Disaster Types

Hurricane 29
Flood 12
Coastal Storm 4
Severe Storm 3
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Winter Storm 1
Other 1

What Hurricane declarations mean here

Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on St. Martin Parish's federal record, 54% of its declarations. Atlantic tropical systems run on a defined season, 1 June to 30 November, with most activity concentrated between August and October; Pacific and territorial basins run on their own calendars. A single named storm routinely produces one declaration number covering a long corridor of counties at once, well inland as well as on the coast, which is why an affected county's count can jump by several in one year without several separate events having occurred.

One practical distinction matters when reading these records: a tropical declaration usually bundles wind, storm surge and inland rainfall flooding under a single incident, but the insurance behind them is split. Wind damage falls to property insurers, while flood and surge damage is covered only under a separate National Flood Insurance Program policy. That is why a county can show heavy declaration activity and a comparatively small NFIP claims record, or the reverse.

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 - 34 63.0%

of all 54 declarations

Emergency - 20 37.0%

of all 54 declarations

FEMA Declarations Timeline

Year Declarations
2026 1
2024 2
2021 9
2020 6
2019 4
2018 1
2016 1
2012 2
2011 2
2008 3
2007 1
2005 4
2004 2
2003 2
2001 1
Show 13 earlier declaration years
1998 1
1993 1
1992 1
1991 1
1989 1
1985 1
1980 1
1979 1
1977 1
1974 1
1973 1
1972 1
1965 1

Disaster Declarations

How the 54 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.

Download these 54 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.

DR# Title Type Incident Date
3638 SEVERE WINTER STORM EM Winter Storm 2026-01-24
4817 HURRICANE FRANCINE DR Hurricane 2024-09-16
3614 TROPICAL STORM FRANCINE EM Hurricane 2024-09-10
3574 TROPICAL STORM NICHOLAS EM Coastal Storm 2021-09-13
4611 HURRICANE IDA DR Hurricane 2021-08-29
3568 TROPICAL STORM IDA EM Hurricane 2021-08-27
4590 SEVERE WINTER STORMS DR Severe Ice Storm 2021-03-09
3556 SEVERE WINTER STORM EM Severe Ice Storm 2021-02-18
4577 HURRICANE ZETA DR Hurricane 2021-01-12
3549 TROPICAL STORM ZETA EM Hurricane 2020-10-27
4570 HURRICANE DELTA DR Hurricane 2020-10-16
3547 HURRICANE DELTA EM Hurricane 2020-10-07
3543 HURRICANE SALLY EM Hurricane 2020-09-14
4559 HURRICANE LAURA DR Hurricane 2020-08-28
3538 TROPICAL STORMS LAURA AND MARCO EM Hurricane 2020-08-23
3527 TROPICAL STORM CRISTOBAL EM Coastal Storm 2020-06-07
4484 COVID-19 PANDEMIC DR Biological 2020-03-24
3459 COVID-19 EM Biological 2020-03-13
4462 FLOODING DR Flood 2019-09-19
4458 HURRICANE BARRY DR Hurricane 2019-08-27
Show 34 earlier declaration records
DR# Title Type Incident Date
3416 TROPICAL STORM BARRY EM Coastal Storm 2019-07-11
3413 FLOODING EM Flood 2019-05-29
3392 TROPICAL STORM NATE EM Hurricane 2017-10-06
4277 SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING DR Flood 2016-08-14
4080 HURRICANE ISAAC DR Hurricane 2012-08-29
3347 TROPICAL STORM ISAAC EM Hurricane 2012-08-27
4015 FLOODING DR Flood 2011-08-18
3322 FLOODING EM Flood 2011-05-06
1792 HURRICANE IKE DR Hurricane 2008-09-13
1786 HURRICANE GUSTAV DR Hurricane 2008-09-02
3289 HURRICANE GUSTAV EM Hurricane 2008-08-29
1685 SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES DR Severe Storm 2007-02-23
1607 HURRICANE RITA DR Hurricane 2005-09-24
3260 HURRICANE RITA EM Hurricane 2005-09-21
1603 HURRICANE KATRINA DR Hurricane 2005-08-29
3212 HURRICANE KATRINA EM Hurricane 2005-08-27
1548 HURRICANE IVAN DR Hurricane 2004-09-15
1521 SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING DR Severe Storm 2004-06-08
3172 LOSS OF SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA EM Other 2003-02-01
1437 HURRICANE LILI DR Hurricane 2002-10-03
1380 TROPICAL STORM ALLISON DR Coastal Storm 2001-06-11
1246 HURRICANE GEORGES/TS FRANCES DR Hurricane 1998-09-23
978 SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING DR Flood 1993-02-02
956 HURRICANE ANDREW DR Hurricane 1992-08-26
904 SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING DR Severe Storm 1991-05-03
829 SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING DR Flood 1989-05-20
728 SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING DR Flood 1984-10-31
616 SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING DR Flood 1980-04-09
584 SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING DR Flood 1979-05-02
534 SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING DR Flood 1977-05-02
448 HURRICANE CARMEN DR Hurricane 1974-09-23
374 SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING DR Flood 1973-04-27
315 HURRICANE EDITH DR Hurricane 1971-10-13
208 HURRICANE BETSY DR Hurricane 1965-09-10

Storm Events in Louisiana

Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to St. Martin Parish.

Storm Type Events Fatalities Injuries Property Damage
Thunderstorm Wind 3,274 12 29 $24.9M
Flash Flood 1,516 20 17 $3.9B
Hail 1,224 0 0 $49.3M
Excessive Heat 1,183 3 0 $0
Heat 1,106 5 0 $0

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025

NFIP Flood Insurance Claims

Total Claims

1,466

Total Paid

$28.1M

Avg Per Claim

$19.2K

Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data

FEMA National Risk Index

Overall Risk

Relatively Moderate

Score: 87.3/100

Expected Annual Loss

Relatively Low

$47.0M/year

Social Vulnerability

Very High

Community Resilience

Very High

Hazard Risk Breakdown

Hurricane Relatively High
Drought Relatively High
Cold Wave Relatively High
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively High
Coastal Flooding Relatively High
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Hail 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: 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.

For St. Martin Parish the two measures on this page point the same way: Hurricane is the county's highest-rated modeled hazard (Relatively High), and Hurricane 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

St. Martin Parish's closest FEMA peer: Ventura County, CA

Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for St. Martin Parish. Record similarity, not a safety rating.

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 St. Martin Parish - capture-dated entries only.

Further reading for this county

Understanding disaster data

St. Martin Parish's NFIP claims file (1,466 claims) and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records - this guide separates them from modeled NRI risk.

More PlainHazard guides

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most common disaster type in St. Martin Parish?
The most common disaster type in St. Martin Parish is Hurricane, with 29 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (12), Coastal Storm (4), Severe Storm (3).
How does St. Martin Parish's FEMA declaration record compare with the Louisiana average?
FEMA lists 54 declaration records for St. Martin Parish. That is 31% above the Louisiana county mean of 41.4. Its count is also 161% 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 St. Martin Parish received?
St. Martin Parish has received 34 major disaster declarations, representing 63% of all 54 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has St. Martin Parish filed?
St. Martin Parish has 1,466 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $28.1M in payments, with an average of $19.2K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in St. Martin Parish?
The most active year for disaster declarations in St. Martin Parish was 2021, with 9 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for St. Martin Parish?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, St. Martin Parish, Louisiana has an overall risk score of 87.3 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). On social vulnerability the county rates Very High; on community resilience, Very High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $47.0M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to St. Martin Parish?
Based on FEMA NRI data, the highest-risk natural hazard in St. Martin Parish as of the latest release is Hurricane (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively High) and Cold Wave (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts hurricane here at roughly once every 5 years, drawn from 73 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.

What this means for St. Martin Parish

St. Martin Parish, LA has 54 federal declaration records, 31% more than the Louisiana county mean of 41; its history sits in PlainHazard's high activity band.

  • Within this above-state-average declaration file, major disaster leads with 34 of 54 records; the category describes past federal action, not the next likely hazard. Louisiana overview
  • The state benchmark and national rank point the same way: this count tops the Louisiana mean and the totals for 99% of 3,266 U.S. counties. Most-disaster rankings
  • The large NFIP claims file and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records; the guide explains where they overlap and where they do not. Disaster-data guide

An above-average declaration count records past federal responses; it does not predict the next event. Current warnings come from the National Weather Service and local emergency officials.

All federal data sources used on this page
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.