FEMA disaster type · OpenFEMA declarations
Hurricane disasters in the United States
FEMA disaster declarations classified as "Hurricane" from 1954 to 2026 - which states are hit most often and how the count has changed over time.
- 454
- FEMA declarations
- 48
- States affected
- 1954
- Earliest year
- 2026
- Latest year
The verdict
According to FEMA's disaster declaration history, hurricane ranks #4 of the 27 distinct disaster types the agency has declared, accounting for 8.7% of all 5,218 declarations on record. It is declared more often than 88% of the other declaration types FEMA tracks, based on total historical volume.
- #4 of 27
- FEMA disaster types, by declaration volume
- 8.7%
- share of all 5,218 FEMA declarations
- 454
- hurricane declarations, 1954–2026
Ranking reflects the count of Presidentially declared federal disasters per OpenFEMA, not event severity or economic loss; a rare declaration type can still be individually catastrophic.
How does Hurricane compare?
Hurricane vs. every FEMA declaration type
Declaration volume across all tracked incident types
454 Top 15% higher than 85% of 27 disaster types
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more disaster types. 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 OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 · 2026-08-03
What shapes the hurricane record?
States with the most hurricane declarations
Wider bars = more FEMA declarations of this type
- Florida
Florida
59 declarations
- Louisiana
Louisiana
38 declarations
- North Carolina
North Carolina
34 declarations
- Alabama
Alabama
25 declarations
- Texas
Texas
25 declarations
- Mississippi
Mississippi
24 declarations
- South Carolina 21
South Carolina
21 declarations
- Puerto Rico 20
Puerto Rico
20 declarations
- U.S. Virgin Islands 18
U.S. Virgin Islands
18 declarations
- New York 17
New York
17 declarations
What this shows Florida leads with 59 hurricane declarations among the states shown.
Hurricane declarations by year
Federal declaration cadence for this incident type across the OpenFEMA record.
Peak year in this series: 2005 (57 declarations). A declaration is a federal assistance trigger, not a raw event count.
How common are Hurricane disasters in the U.S.?
Geographic concentration is pronounced for this disaster type. The three states with the most hurricane declarations on record are FL (59 declarations), LA (38 declarations), NC (34 declarations), driven mainly by which states sit in the relevant hazard corridor. States with the fewest declarations, including OK (1), TN (1), WI (1), generally facing less exposure to this hazard type, though physiographic coverage still varies.
FEMA has issued 454 federal disaster declarations classified as hurricane between 1954 and 2026, affecting 48 states and territories. Each declaration represents a formal federal recognition that an event exceeded state and local response capacity, unlocking Public Assistance, Individual Assistance, or Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding depending on the declaration class (DR, EM, or FM). Raw declaration counts therefore measure the federal response footprint, which is a lagging and thresholded indicator: smaller events handled entirely at the state level never appear, and declaration thresholds have been recalibrated over the dataset's multi-decade history.
Temporal patterns in the record tell a separate story. The peak year on record was 2005, with 57 hurricane declarations issued that single year, a clustering driven by major multi-state events and the federal government's declaration cadence. The most recent year on record is 2026, with 1 declarations. Trends over the 72+ year history reflect changing federal declaration policy alongside real shifts in event frequency.
Which federal declaration does hurricane actually get?
This type splits across two federal instruments rather than favouring one: 61% Major Disaster declarations and 39% Emergencies across 454 declarations. That mix usually indicates a hazard with warning time -- an Emergency can be declared before or during landfall to fund evacuation and protective measures, and a Major Disaster follows afterwards once damage is assessed. The two counts describe different moments in the same response, not competing tallies of the same events.
Declarations by State
| # | State | Declarations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida FL | 59 |
| 2 | Louisiana LA | 38 |
| 3 | North Carolina NC | 34 |
| 4 | Alabama AL | 25 |
| 5 | Texas TX | 25 |
| 6 | Mississippi MS | 24 |
| 7 | South Carolina SC | 21 |
| 8 | Puerto Rico PR | 20 |
| 9 | U.S. Virgin Islands VI | 18 |
| 10 | New York NY | 17 |
| 11 | Georgia GA | 16 |
| 12 | Virginia VA | 16 |
| 13 | Connecticut CT | 14 |
| 14 | Massachusetts MA | 12 |
| 15 | New Jersey NJ | 12 |
| 16 | Delaware DE | 10 |
| 17 | Rhode Island RI | 10 |
| 18 | Maryland MD | 9 |
| 19 | Pennsylvania PA | 9 |
| 20 | New Hampshire NH | 7 |
| 21 | District of Columbia DC | 6 |
| 22 | Hawaii HI | 6 |
| 23 | Maine ME | 6 |
| 24 | American Samoa AS | 5 |
| 25 | West Virginia WV | 5 |
| 26 | Arkansas AR | 3 |
| 27 | California CA | 3 |
| 28 | Vermont VT | 3 |
| 29 | Ohio OH | 2 |
| 30 | Arizona AZ | 1 |
| 31 | Guam GU | 1 |
| 32 | Iowa IA | 1 |
| 33 | Idaho ID | 1 |
| 34 | Illinois IL | 1 |
| 35 | Indiana IN | 1 |
| 36 | Kansas KS | 1 |
| 37 | Kentucky KY | 1 |
| 38 | Michigan MI | 1 |
| 39 | Minnesota MN | 1 |
| 40 | Missouri MO | 1 |
| 41 | Northern Mariana Islands MP | 1 |
| 42 | Montana MT | 1 |
| 43 | Nebraska NE | 1 |
| 44 | New Mexico NM | 1 |
| 45 | Nevada NV | 1 |
| 46 | Oklahoma OK | 1 |
| 47 | Tennessee TN | 1 |
| 48 | Wisconsin WI | 1 |
Declarations by Year
| Year | Declarations |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 |
| 2025 | 4 |
| 2024 | 8 |
| 2023 | 10 |
| 2022 | 10 |
| 2021 | 32 |
| 2020 | 22 |
| 2019 | 17 |
| 2018 | 18 |
| 2017 | 27 |
| 2016 | 1 |
| 2013 | 26 |
| 2012 | 6 |
| 2011 | 29 |
| 2010 | 6 |
| 2009 | 2 |
| 2008 | 14 |
| 2007 | 1 |
| 2006 | 2 |
| 2005 | 57 |
| 2004 | 13 |
| 2003 | 11 |
| 2002 | 1 |
| 2000 | 7 |
| 1999 | 22 |
| 1998 | 14 |
| 1996 | 9 |
| 1995 | 4 |
| 1993 | 1 |
| 1992 | 4 |
| 1991 | 6 |
| 1990 | 1 |
| 1989 | 5 |
| 1987 | 1 |
| 1986 | 8 |
| 1985 | 4 |
| 1984 | 1 |
| 1983 | 1 |
| 1980 | 1 |
| 1979 | 5 |
| 1976 | 1 |
| 1974 | 1 |
| 1972 | 1 |
| 1970 | 2 |
| 1969 | 5 |
| 1967 | 1 |
| 1965 | 4 |
| 1964 | 3 |
| 1963 | 1 |
| 1961 | 1 |
| 1960 | 2 |
| 1959 | 2 |
| 1957 | 3 |
| 1956 | 1 |
| 1955 | 10 |
| 1954 | 4 |
Recent Hurricane Declarations
Download all 454 declarations as CSV . Source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0. The table below lists the 30 most recent; the file carries every one.
| DR# | Title | State | Type | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4910 | SUPER TYPHOON SINLAKU | MP | DR | 2026-04-23 |
| 4844 | HURRICANE MILTON | FL | DR | 2024-11-05 |
| 4834 | HURRICANE MILTON | FL | DR | 2024-10-11 |
| 3623 | HURRICANE MILTON | FL | EM | 2024-10-08 |
| 3622 | HURRICANE MILTON | FL | EM | 2024-10-07 |
| 4830 | HURRICANE HELENE | GA | DR | 2024-09-30 |
| 4829 | HURRICANE HELENE | SC | DR | 2024-09-29 |
| 4828 | HURRICANE HELENE | FL | DR | 2024-09-28 |
| 3618 | HURRICANE HELENE | AL | EM | 2024-09-26 |
| 4817 | HURRICANE FRANCINE | LA | DR | 2024-09-16 |
| 3614 | TROPICAL STORM FRANCINE | LA | EM | 2024-09-10 |
| 4798 | HURRICANE BERYL | TX | DR | 2024-07-09 |
| 4750 | TROPICAL STORM HILARY | CA | DR | 2023-11-21 |
| 4743 | TROPICAL STORM HILARY | CA | DR | 2023-09-27 |
| 3599 | HURRICANE LEE | MA | EM | 2023-09-15 |
| 3598 | HURRICANE LEE | ME | EM | 2023-09-14 |
| 4738 | HURRICANE IDALIA | GA | DR | 2023-09-07 |
| 4734 | HURRICANE IDALIA | FL | DR | 2023-08-31 |
| 3597 | HURRICANE IDALIA | SC | EM | 2023-08-31 |
| 4715 | TYPHOON MAWAR | GU | DR | 2023-05-25 |
| 4680 | HURRICANE NICOLE | FL | DR | 2022-12-13 |
| 4677 | HURRICANE IAN | SC | DR | 2022-11-21 |
| 3586 | HURRICANE IAN | NC | EM | 2022-10-01 |
| 4675 | HURRICANE IAN - SEMINOLE TRIBE OF FLORIDA | FL | DR | 2022-09-30 |
| 3585 | HURRICANE IAN | SC | EM | 2022-09-29 |
| 4673 | HURRICANE IAN | FL | DR | 2022-09-29 |
| 3584 | TROPICAL STORM IAN | FL | EM | 2022-09-24 |
| 4671 | HURRICANE FIONA | PR | DR | 2022-09-21 |
| 3583 | TROPICAL STORM FIONA | PR | EM | 2022-09-18 |
| 4629 | REMNANTS OF HURRICANE IDA | CT | DR | 2021-10-30 |
What this means for Hurricane declarations
Hurricane is declared more often than 88% of the other declaration types FEMA tracks, with 454 FEMA declaration records; Florida leads with 59.
- Florida accounts for the largest share of hurricane declarations in this corpus. Florida profile
- See how states compare on raw FEMA declaration volume across all incident types. Most disasters ranking
- Learn what a FEMA declaration does and does not measure relative to NOAA storm events. Disaster-data guide
A federal declaration is a legal assistance trigger, not a count of every storm event or a forecast. For current threats follow the National Weather Service and local officials; in an emergency call 911.
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Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 For informational purposes only
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Verify declarations with FEMA → Verify storm-event context 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.