FEMA Records
17
Below median
Tennessee · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Wilson County, TN
17 FEMA disaster declarations (1974-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Severe Storm.
- 17
- FEMA declarations
- 12
- Major disasters
- 80
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Severe Storm
- Top hazard
The verdict
Wilson County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 17 declarations, more than 32% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 21% below the Tennessee county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county in the riskiest 20%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Riskiest 20%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 17
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 573
- 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 47189 · Wilson County 17 declarations · rank 2192/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 17
- MAJOR-MID 71%
- RANK-LOWER #2,192
- PHOTO-FINISH Curry
- NRI-LOW 80
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Severe Storm
- VS-ST-BELOW -21%
Nearest declaration peer: Curry, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · Tennessee state profile
Wilson County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Wilson County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Curry · near 17
Curry · near
17 declarations
- Murray · near 17
Murray · near
17 declarations
- Washington · near 17
Washington · near
17 declarations
- Wilson · this county 17
Wilson · this county
17 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Wilson County carries 17 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2192 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Wilson County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Wilson County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Wilson County
17 32nd percentile higher than 32% 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
Wilson County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Wilson County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $31.1M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Moderate), while Cold Wave 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 Wilson County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
FEMA's NFIP table contains a substantial paid-claim history for this county: 573 claims and $11.2M 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 $19.6K. NFIP totals exclude uninsured flood losses and do not measure how many properties currently carry a policy.
Start with the state benchmark: a Tennessee county averages 21.4 federal declaration records, while Wilson County has 17. The gap is 21% 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 80.0/100 (Relatively Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Moderate (roughly $60.5M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Very Low and community resilience Relatively High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Cold Wave carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 1.2 times per year here, based on 22 historical events on record.
55 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Wilson County, TN · 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) Moderate
12/30
17 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
10/25
17 declarations (0.8x state county average of 21)
Major Disaster Share High
18/25
12 of 17 declarations are major disasters (71%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Wilson County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Wilson 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
71%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
80
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Wilson 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 1.2 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 5.6 times per year |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | roughly once every 349 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.6 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 3.4 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 1 years |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | an average of 59 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Moderate | an average of 6.1 times per year |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 4.5 modeled event-days per year |
| Hurricane | Very Low | roughly once every 43 years |
| Wildfire | Very Low | roughly once every 20,130 years |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 10 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 3 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Severe Storm 7
Tornado 4
Winter Storm 2
Biological 2
Hurricane 1
Snowstorm 1
What Severe Storm declarations mean here
Severe Storm is the most frequent declaration type on Wilson County's record, 41% 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 - 12 70.6%
of all 17 declarations
Emergency - 5 29.4%
of all 17 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 2 | |
| 2025 | 2 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 2003 | 1 | |
| 1998 | 1 | |
| 1994 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1979 | 1 | |
| 1974 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 17 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 17 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4898 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Winter Storm | 2026-02-06 |
| 3635 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | EM | Winter Storm | 2026-01-24 |
| 4878 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2025-06-19 |
| 3625 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | EM | Severe Storm | 2025-04-02 |
| 4637 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 2022-01-14 |
| 4601 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 2021-05-08 |
| 4514 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-02 |
| 3473 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4476 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Tornado | 2020-03-05 |
| 1909 | SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND TORNADOES | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-05-04 |
| 3217 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Hurricane | 2005-09-05 |
| 1464 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2003-05-08 |
| 1215 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1998-04-20 |
| 1010 | SEVERE WINTER ICE STORM,FLASH FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1994-02-28 |
| 3095 | SEVERE SNOWFALL, WINTER STORM | EM | Snowstorm | 1993-03-14 |
| 585 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1979-05-07 |
| 424 | TORNADOES | DR | Tornado | 1974-04-04 |
Storm Events in Tennessee
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Wilson County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 6,558 | 22 | 58 | $107.0M |
| Hail | 1,690 | 0 | 0 | $545.5K |
| Heat | 1,343 | 9 | 15 | $0 |
| Flash Flood | 1,264 | 55 | 3 | $334.4M |
| Winter Weather | 1,088 | 5 | 0 | $261.0K |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
573
Total Paid
$11.2M
Avg Per Claim
$19.6K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 80.0/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Moderate
$60.5M/year
Social Vulnerability
Very Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively High
Earthquake Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Moderate
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Lightning Relatively Moderate
Strong Wind Relatively Moderate
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Hurricane Very Low
Wildfire Very Low
Drought Relatively Low
Landslide 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: Cold Wave
Cold Wave measures exposure to extreme cold rather than to snow. Its harm is concentrated in health effects, burst infrastructure and energy demand spikes, and it falls hardest where the building stock and the grid were not built with sustained cold in mind.
Worth noting for Wilson County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave 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
Wilson County's closest FEMA peer: Limestone County, AL
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Wilson County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Similar modeled NRI score
Wilson County: NRI composite 80.0 (Relatively Low).
Similar Major-disaster share
Wilson County: 12 of 17 of its declarations are Major.
Closest declaration profiles
Wilson County shows 17 FEMA declarations, led by Severe Storm.
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 Wilson County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Wilson 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: 80.0 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 17. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Wilson County's NFIP claims file (573 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 Wilson County?
The most common disaster type in Wilson County is Severe Storm, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Tornado (4), Winter Storm (2), Biological (2).
How does Wilson County's FEMA declaration record compare with the Tennessee average?
The typical Tennessee county has 21.4 FEMA declaration records; Wilson County has 17, or 21% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 18% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Wilson County received?
Wilson County has received 12 major disaster declarations, representing 71% of all 17 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Wilson County filed?
Wilson County has 573 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $11.2M in payments, with an average of $19.6K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Wilson County?
No. In Wilson County, Cold Wave has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $31.1M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Wilson County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Wilson County was 2020, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1974 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Wilson County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Wilson County, Tennessee has an overall risk score of 80.0 out of 100 (Relatively Low). Social vulnerability here rates Very Low, while community resilience comes in at Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Moderate, representing $60.5M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Wilson County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Wilson County is Cold Wave (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Winter Weather (Relatively High) and Earthquake (Relatively Low). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 1.2 times per year, drawn from 22 historical events on record. 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 Wilson County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · Tennessee profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events