FEMA Records
23
Above median
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Stephens County, TX
23 FEMA disaster declarations (1978-2021), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Fire.
- 23
- FEMA declarations
- 10
- Major disasters
- 9
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Fire
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Stephens County. Its 23 FEMA declarations are 10% above the Texas county mean and exceed the count for 62% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 9%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 9%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 23
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 68
- 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 48429 · Stephens County 23 declarations · rank 1152/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 23
- MAJOR-LIGHT 43%
- RANK-LOWER #1,152
- PHOTO-FINISH Roanoke
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Fire
- VS-ST-ABOVE +10%
Nearest declaration peer: Roanoke, VA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Texas state profile
Stephens County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Stephens County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Amherst · near 23
Amherst · near
23 declarations
- Roanoke · near 23
Roanoke · near
23 declarations
- Stephens · this county 23
Stephens · this county
23 declarations
- Vance · near 23
Vance · near
23 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Stephens County carries 23 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1152 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Stephens County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Stephens County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Stephens County
23 Top 38% higher than 62% 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
Stephens County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Stephens County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $2.3M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), 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 Stephens County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 68 paid claims, totaling $896.1K. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $13.2K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Stephens County's 23 federal records stand 10% 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's National Risk Index places this county in the low end of the national distribution, composite score 9.2/100 (Very Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $4.6M in annualized losses). Two modifiers shape how that exposure becomes real-world harm here: social vulnerability (Relatively Low) and community resilience (Very Low). 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 163 years here.
60 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Stephens 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
17/30
23 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.1x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
14/25
23 declarations (1.1x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
11/25
10 of 23 declarations are major disasters (43%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Stephens County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Stephens 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
43%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
9
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Stephens 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 163 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 6.7 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 6 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 82 modeled event-days per year |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 12 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 2.1 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Ice Storm | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,062 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 49 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 5.1 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Fire 10
Flood 3
Hurricane 3
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Severe Storm 2
Drought 1
What Fire declarations mean here
Fire is the most frequent declaration type on Stephens County's record, 43% 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 - 10 43.5%
of all 23 declarations
Emergency - 7 30.4%
of all 23 declarations
Fire Management - 6 26.1%
of all 23 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 4 | |
| 2009 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 3 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1982 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 23 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 23 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 1999 | WILDFIRES | DR | Fire | 2011-07-01 |
| 2893 | HOHERTZ FIRE | FM | Fire | 2011-04-16 |
| 2895 | PK EAST FIRE | FM | Fire | 2011-04-16 |
| 2888 | PK WEST FIRE | FM | Fire | 2011-04-15 |
| 2810 | BRECKENRIDGE FIRE | FM | Fire | 2009-04-10 |
| 3284 | WILDFIRES | EM | Fire | 2008-03-14 |
| 1709 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-06-29 |
| 2667 | CADDO II FIRE COMPLEX | FM | Fire | 2006-08-19 |
| 2620 | CADDO FIRE | FM | Fire | 2006-01-15 |
| 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 |
| 3142 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARDS | EM | Fire | 1999-09-01 |
| 1239 | TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-26 |
Show 3 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3113 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Drought | 1993-09-10 |
| 648 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1981-10-23 |
| 561 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1978-08-03 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Stephens 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
68
Total Paid
$896.1K
Avg Per Claim
$13.2K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 9.2/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$4.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Drought Relatively Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Ice Storm Very Low
Earthquake Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Winter Weather 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 Stephens 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
Stephens County's closest FEMA peer: Cumberland County, NC
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Stephens County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Stephens County shows 23 FEMA declarations, led by Fire.
Similar Major-disaster share
Stephens County: 10 of 23 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Stephens County: NRI composite 9.2 (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 Stephens County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Stephens 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: 9.2 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 23. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Stephens County's NFIP claims file (68 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 Stephens County?
The most common disaster type in Stephens County is Fire, with 10 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (3), Hurricane (3), Severe Ice Storm (2).
How does Stephens County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
FEMA lists 23 declaration records for Stephens County. That is 10% above the Texas county mean of 20.9. Its count is also 11% 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 Stephens County received?
Stephens County has received 10 major disaster declarations, representing 43% of all 23 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Stephens County filed?
Stephens County has 68 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $896.1K in payments, with an average of $13.2K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Stephens County?
No. In Stephens County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Low), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $2.3M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Stephens County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Stephens County was 2011, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1978 to 2021.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Stephens County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Stephens County, Texas has an overall risk score of 9.2 out of 100 (Very Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively Low, while community resilience comes in at Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $4.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Stephens County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Stephens County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Low). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively Low) and Landslide (Very Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 163 years. 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Stephens County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events