FEMA Records
27
High volume
Mississippi · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Tallahatchie County, MS
27 FEMA disaster declarations (1971-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 27
- FEMA declarations
- 22
- Major disasters
- 40
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Tallahatchie County. Its 27 FEMA declarations are 4% above the Mississippi county mean and exceed the count for 78% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 40%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 40%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 27
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 102
- 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 28135 · Tallahatchie County 27 declarations · rank 688/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 27
- MAJOR-HEAVY 81%
- RANK-MID #688
- PHOTO-FINISH Greene
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-ABOVE +4%
Nearest declaration peer: Greene, MO (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Mississippi state profile
Tallahatchie County among high-volume declaration counties
FEMA declaration records among Tallahatchie County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Coal · near 27
Coal · near
27 declarations
- Greene · near 27
Greene · near
27 declarations
- Tallahatchie · this county 27
Tallahatchie · this county
27 declarations
- Warren · near 27
Warren · near
27 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Tallahatchie County carries 27 FEMA declaration records, ranked 688 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Where Tallahatchie County ranks in the national declaration registry
Tallahatchie County vs. high-volume counties in this registry
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Tallahatchie County
27 Top 22% higher than 78% 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
Tallahatchie County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Tallahatchie County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $2.2M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very Low), while Drought carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). 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 Tallahatchie County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 102 paid claims, totaling $766.6K. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $7.5K 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. Tallahatchie County's 27 federal records stand 4% above the Mississippi county mean of 25.9. 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 data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 40.1/100 for this county (Very Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $7.9M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Very High) and community resilience (Very Low) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Drought carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 13 modeled event-days per year here, based on 385 historical events on record.
73 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Tallahatchie County, MS · 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
20/30
27 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.3x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
13/25
27 declarations (1.0x state county average of 26)
Major Disaster Share Very High
20/25
22 of 27 declarations are major disasters (81%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Tallahatchie County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Tallahatchie 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
81%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
40
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Tallahatchie 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 13 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 248 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.8 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 22 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 18 years |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Low | an average of 1.1 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 64 times per year |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 893 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 2.8 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 4.3 times 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 12
Hurricane 4
Winter Storm 2
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Flood 2
Tornado 2
Snowstorm 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Tallahatchie County's record, 44% 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 - 22 81.5%
of all 27 declarations
Emergency - 5 18.5%
of all 27 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 4 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2016 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 2001 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1991 | 2 | |
| 1990 | 1 | |
| 1984 | 1 | |
Show 5 earlier declaration years
| 1983 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1977 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
| 1971 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 27 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 27 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4899 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Winter Storm | 2026-02-06 |
| 3640 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4626 | HURRICANE IDA | DR | Hurricane | 2021-10-22 |
| 3569 | HURRICANE IDA | EM | Hurricane | 2021-08-28 |
| 4598 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-05-04 |
| 4536 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2020-04-16 |
| 4528 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-05 |
| 3474 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4478 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2020-03-12 |
| 4429 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2019-04-23 |
| 4268 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2016-03-25 |
| 4248 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2016-01-04 |
| 3291 | HURRICANE GUSTAV | EM | Hurricane | 2008-08-30 |
| 1604 | HURRICANE KATRINA | DR | Hurricane | 2005-08-29 |
| 1398 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2001-12-07 |
| 1360 | SEVERE STORMS AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2001-02-23 |
| 1265 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS, ICE AND FREEZING RAIN | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 1999-01-25 |
| 1009 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, FREEEZING RAIN AND SLEET | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-02-18 |
| 906 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1991-05-17 |
| 895 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1991-03-05 |
Show 7 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 859 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1990-02-28 |
| 703 | TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1984-04-26 |
| 683 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1983-06-01 |
| 577 | STORMS, TORNADOES, FLOODS | DR | Severe Storm | 1979-04-16 |
| 3032 | DROUGHT & FREEZING | EM | Snowstorm | 1977-02-22 |
| 368 | HEAVY RAINS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1973-03-27 |
| 302 | STORMS & TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1971-02-22 |
Storm Events in Mississippi
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Tallahatchie County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 5,557 | 17 | 60 | $93.9M |
| Flash Flood | 1,551 | 6 | 9 | $83.6M |
| Hail | 1,411 | 0 | 0 | $90.1M |
| Heat | 1,340 | 3 | 0 | $0 |
| Tornado | 1,097 | 68 | 610 | $562.0M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
102
Total Paid
$766.6K
Avg Per Claim
$7.5K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 40.1/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$7.9M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Relatively Low
Cold Wave Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Wildfire Very Low
Hail Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding 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: Drought
Drought is the slowest of the modeled hazards and the least visible: it does its damage to agriculture, water supply and soil over seasons rather than hours, so it rarely produces the kind of single-day damage that drives a disaster declaration. FEMA scores it in event-days per year rather than discrete events for exactly that reason.
Worth noting for Tallahatchie County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Drought carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), 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
Tallahatchie County's closest FEMA peer: Humboldt County, CA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Tallahatchie County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Tallahatchie County shows 27 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
Similar Major-disaster share
Tallahatchie County: 22 of 27 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Tallahatchie County: NRI composite 40.1 (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 Tallahatchie County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Tallahatchie 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: 40.1 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 27. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Tallahatchie County's NFIP claims file (102 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 Tallahatchie County?
The most common disaster type in Tallahatchie County is Severe Storm, with 12 declarations. Other disaster types include Hurricane (4), Winter Storm (2), Severe Ice Storm (2).
How does Tallahatchie County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Mississippi average?
FEMA lists 27 declaration records for Tallahatchie County. That is 4% above the Mississippi county mean of 25.9. Its count is also 30% 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 Tallahatchie County received?
Tallahatchie County has received 22 major disaster declarations, representing 81% of all 27 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Tallahatchie County filed?
Tallahatchie County has 102 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $766.6K in payments, with an average of $7.5K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Tallahatchie County?
No. In Tallahatchie County, Drought has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $2.2M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Tallahatchie County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Tallahatchie County was 2020, with 4 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1971 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Tallahatchie County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Tallahatchie County, Mississippi has an overall risk score of 40.1 out of 100 (Very Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very High and community resilience is Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $7.9M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Tallahatchie County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Tallahatchie County is Drought (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Earthquake (Relatively Low) and Strong Wind (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 13 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 385 historical events on record. 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 Tallahatchie County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Mississippi profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events