FEMA Records
23
Above median
Texas · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Webb County, TX
23 FEMA disaster declarations (1972-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Moderate. Most common hazard: Hurricane.
- 23
- FEMA declarations
- 11
- Major disasters
- 89
- NRI risk · Relatively Moderate
- Hurricane
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Webb 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 in the riskiest 11%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 11%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Moderate
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 23
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 269
- 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 48479 · Webb County 23 declarations · rank 1232/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-LIGHT · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-MID · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 23
- MAJOR-LIGHT 48%
- RANK-LOWER #1,232
- PHOTO-FINISH Roanoke
- NRI-MID 89
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Hurricane
- 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
Webb County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Webb 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
- Vance · near 23
Vance · near
23 declarations
- Webb · this county 23
Webb · this county
23 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Webb County carries 23 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1232 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Webb County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Webb County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Webb 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
Webb County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Webb County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $25.4M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), while Heat Wave carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High). 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 Webb County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 269 paid claims, totaling $6.8M. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $25.2K 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. Webb 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
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 89.2/100 (Relatively Moderate). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $46.5M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very High and community resilience Very Low, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Of the 18 hazards FEMA models, Heat Wave stands out as the sharpest exposure here, rated Relatively High. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at 10 modeled event-days per year here, based on 194 historical events on record.
63 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Webb 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
12/25
11 of 23 declarations are major disasters (48%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
20/20
8 different disaster types declared in Webb County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Webb 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
48%
Mixed major share
NRI risk score
89
Relatively Moderate
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Webb 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Heat Wave | Relatively High | 10 modeled event-days per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively High | an average of 1.3 times per year |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.6 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Hurricane | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 16 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 4 years |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 13 years |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 791 years |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 36 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 3 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 5,291 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 104 modeled event-days per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Hurricane 10
Fire 3
Flood 2
Severe Ice Storm 2
Biological 2
Severe Storm 2
Coastal Storm 1
Drought 1
What Hurricane declarations mean here
Hurricane is the most frequent declaration type on Webb County's federal record, 43% 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 - 11 47.8%
of all 23 declarations
Major Disaster - 11 47.8%
of all 23 declarations
Fire Management - 1 4.3%
of all 23 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 2 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 3 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 3 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 1999 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3649 | FLOODING | EM | Flood | 2026-07-18 |
| 4798 | HURRICANE BERYL | DR | Hurricane | 2024-07-09 |
| 4586 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-19 |
| 3554 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Severe Ice Storm | 2021-02-14 |
| 3530 | HURRICANE HANNA | EM | Hurricane | 2020-07-26 |
| 4485 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-03-25 |
| 3458 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 2882 | EL CENIZO FIRE | FM | Fire | 2011-04-05 |
| 1931 | HURRICANE ALEX | DR | Hurricane | 2010-08-03 |
| 3313 | TROPICAL STORM ALEX | EM | Hurricane | 2010-06-29 |
| 3294 | HURRICANE IKE | EM | Hurricane | 2008-09-10 |
| 3290 | HURRICANE GUSTAV | EM | Hurricane | 2008-08-29 |
| 3284 | WILDFIRES | EM | Fire | 2008-03-14 |
| 1709 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-06-29 |
| 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 |
| 1434 | TROPICAL STORM FAY | DR | Coastal Storm | 2002-09-26 |
| 1287 | HURRICANE BRET | DR | Hurricane | 1999-08-22 |
Show 3 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1239 | TROPICAL STORM CHARLEY | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-08-26 |
| 3113 | EXTREME FIRE HAZARD | EM | Drought | 1993-09-10 |
| 333 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-05-20 |
Storm Events in Texas
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Webb 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
269
Total Paid
$6.8M
Avg Per Claim
$25.2K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Moderate
Score: 89.2/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$46.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very High
Community Resilience
Very Low
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Heat Wave Relatively High
Cold Wave Relatively High
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Moderate
Hurricane Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Landslide Very Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Earthquake Very Low
Drought Relatively 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: Heat Wave
Heat Wave is measured in event-days per year rather than discrete events, and it is the hazard whose harm is most consistently undercounted: its toll is health and mortality, concentrated among people without cooling, rather than visible damage to property.
Worth noting for Webb County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Heat Wave carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively High), 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
Webb County's closest FEMA peer: Berkshire County, MA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Webb County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Webb County shows 23 FEMA declarations, led by Hurricane.
Similar Major-disaster share
Webb County: 11 of 23 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Webb County: NRI composite 89.2 (Relatively Moderate).
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 Webb County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Webb 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: 89.2 (Relatively Moderate).
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
Webb County's NFIP claims file (269 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 Webb County?
The most common disaster type in Webb County is Hurricane, with 10 declarations. Other disaster types include Fire (3), Flood (2), Severe Ice Storm (2).
How does Webb County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Texas average?
FEMA lists 23 declaration records for Webb 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 Webb County received?
Webb County has received 11 major disaster declarations, representing 48% of all 23 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Webb County filed?
Webb County has 269 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $6.8M in payments, with an average of $25.2K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Webb County?
No. In Webb County, Heat Wave has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively High), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $25.4M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Webb County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Webb County was 2005, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1972 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Webb County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Webb County, Texas has an overall risk score of 89.2 out of 100 (Relatively Moderate). The county's social vulnerability rating is Very High and community resilience is Very Low. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $46.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Webb County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Webb County is Heat Wave (risk rating: Relatively High). Other significant hazards include Cold Wave (Relatively High) and Riverine Flooding (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts heat wave here at 10 modeled event-days per year, drawn from 194 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.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Webb County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Texas profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events