FEMA Records
29
High volume
Louisiana · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Tensas Parish, LA
29 FEMA disaster declarations (1973-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 29
- FEMA declarations
- 14
- Major disasters
- 15
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Tensas Parish has a nationally busy FEMA history: 29 declarations, more than 85% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 30% below the Louisiana county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 15%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 15%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 29
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 161
- 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.
How does Tensas Parish compare?
Tensas Parish vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time
29 Top 15% higher than 85% 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 · 2026-08-03
Tensas Parish's FEMA Risk Index score
FEMA National Risk Index composite score vs. the Louisiana county average
What does Tensas Parish's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 161 paid claims, totaling $2.9M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $18.1K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
Start with the state benchmark: a Louisiana county averages 41.4 federal declaration records, while Tensas Parish has 29. The gap is 30% below that mean. Fewer entries indicate a quieter history of recorded federal actions, not immunity from a hazard and not a prediction about what happens next.
Declaration frequency
Nationally, Tensas Parish's 29 FEMA records form a high-volume history; within Louisiana, however, the count is 30% below the county mean. 14 entries carry the Major Disaster classification. The largest incident group is Hurricane, appearing 16 times. The full 53-year record averages 0.5 declarations annually. A DR label alone does not say whether Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, or both followed.
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's National Risk Index places this county in the low end of the national distribution, composite score 14.5/100 (Very Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $3.6M in annualized losses). Two modifiers shape how that exposure becomes real-world harm here: social vulnerability (Very High) and community resilience (Relatively Low). 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 16 modeled event-days per year here, based on 448 historical events on record.
60 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Tensas 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) High
21/30
29 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.4x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
9/25
29 declarations (0.7x state county average of 41)
Major Disaster Share Moderate
12/25
14 of 29 declarations are major disasters (48%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Tensas Parish
Historical Declaration Activity
Activity Band
High
vs. Louisiana Avg
-30%
State avg: 41.4
vs. National Avg
+40%
National avg: 20.7
Avg Per Year
0.5
Over 53 years
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Tensas Parish
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
48%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
15
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Tensas 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 16 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Relatively Low | roughly once every 14 years |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 3.3 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 19 modeled event-days per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 629 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 3 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 9 years |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 70 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 1 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 4,214 years |
| Winter Weather | Very Low | an average of 2.1 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 16
Flood 3
Winter Storm 2
Coastal Storm 2
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Severe Storm 2
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Tensas Parish's federal record, 55% 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).
Emergency - 15 51.7%
of all 29 declarations
Major Disaster - 14 48.3%
of all 29 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 8 | |
| 2020 | 6 | |
| 2012 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 2 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 4 | |
| 1991 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 29 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 29 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4900 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Winter Storm | 2026-02-18 |
| 3638 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 4080 | HURRICANE ISAAC | DR | Hurricane | 2012-08-29 |
| 4015 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2011-08-18 |
| 3322 | FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2011-05-06 |
Show 9 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1786 | HURRICANE GUSTAV | DR | Hurricane | 2008-09-02 |
| 3289 | HURRICANE GUSTAV | EM | Hurricane | 2008-08-29 |
| 1668 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2006-11-02 |
| 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 |
| 904 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1991-05-03 |
| 374 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1973-04-27 |
Storm Events in Louisiana
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Tensas 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
161
Total Paid
$2.9M
Avg Per Claim
$18.1K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 14.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$3.6M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Relatively Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Drought Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Cold Wave Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Wildfire 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 Tensas Parish: 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 Hurricane. 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
Tensas Parish's closest FEMA peer: Spokane County, WA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Tensas Parish. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Tensas Parish shows 29 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Tensas Parish: 14 of 29 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Tensas Parish: NRI composite 14.5 (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 Tensas Parish - capture-dated entries only.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Tensas Parish's NFIP claims file (161 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).
Related
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Tensas Parish?
The most common disaster type in Tensas Parish is Hurricane, with 16 declarations. Other disaster types include Flood (3), Winter Storm (2), Coastal Storm (2).
How does Tensas Parish's FEMA declaration record compare with the Louisiana average?
The typical Louisiana county has 41.4 FEMA declaration records; Tensas Parish has 29, or 30% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 40% higher. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Tensas Parish received?
Tensas Parish has received 14 major disaster declarations, representing 48% of all 29 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Tensas Parish filed?
Tensas Parish has 161 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $2.9M in payments, with an average of $18.1K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Tensas Parish?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Tensas Parish was 2021, with 8 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1973 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Tensas Parish?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Tensas Parish, Louisiana has an overall risk score of 14.5 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Very High; on community resilience, Relatively Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $3.6M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Tensas Parish?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Tensas Parish as of the latest release is Drought (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Hurricane (Relatively Low) and Hail (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts drought here at 16 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 448 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.
What this means for Tensas Parish
Against a Louisiana county mean of 41 declarations, Tensas Parish, LA records 29, or 30% fewer. PlainHazard classifies that historical total as high activity.
- Emergency is the largest group (15 of 29) in a declaration history that remains below its state benchmark; frequency here is not a forecast. Louisiana overview
- Nationally the county exceeds 85% of recorded county totals, but its own Louisiana benchmark is higher. The ranking keeps those two contexts separate. Most-disaster rankings
- Use the data guide to separate this mid-volume insurance-claims file from declaration counts and modeled NRI risk. Disaster-data guide
A below-average federal record is not a safety guarantee. Use National Weather Service alerts and local emergency-management notices for present conditions, not this historical comparison.
PlainHazard derives this profile from FEMA's Disaster Declarations Summaries and National Risk Index data. The declaration comparison covers 3,266 U.S. counties and county equivalents in this database, refreshed as of 2026-08-03. Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
All federal data sources used on this page
- FEMA OpenFEMA, Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 - all federally-declared disasters for this county. fema.gov/openfema/disaster-declarations
- FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) - per-county per-hazard risk ratings and expected annual loss. hazards.fema.gov/nri
- NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database - state-level storm/severe-weather event records, 2015-2025. ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents
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.