FEMA disaster type · OpenFEMA declarations
Tsunami disasters in the United States
FEMA disaster declarations classified as "Tsunami" from 2011 to 2011 - which states are hit most often and how the count has changed over time.
- 3
- FEMA declarations
- 3
- States affected
- 2011
- Earliest year
- 2011
- Latest year
The verdict
According to FEMA's disaster declaration history, tsunami ranks #24 of the 27 distinct disaster types the agency has declared, accounting for 0.1% of all 5,218 declarations on record. It is rarer than 88% of the other declaration types FEMA tracks, based on total historical volume.
- #24 of 27
- FEMA disaster types, by declaration volume
- 0.1%
- share of all 5,218 FEMA declarations
- 3
- tsunami declarations, 2011–2011
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 Tsunami compare?
Tsunami vs. every FEMA declaration type
Declaration volume across all tracked incident types
3 11th percentile higher than 11% 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 tsunami record?
States with the most tsunami declarations
Wider bars = more FEMA declarations of this type
- California
California
1 declarations
- Hawaii
Hawaii
1 declarations
- Oregon
Oregon
1 declarations
What this shows California leads with 1 tsunami declarations among the states shown.
How common are Tsunami disasters in the U.S.?
With so few declarations on record, the year-by-year pattern is necessarily sparse. Trends over the 0+ year history reflect how infrequently this disaster type crosses the federal declaration threshold at all.
FEMA has issued 3 federal disaster declarations classified as tsunami between 2011 and 2011, affecting 3 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.
This disaster type's footprint is thin and scattered across the map. The three states with the most tsunami declarations on record are CA (1 declarations), HI (1 declarations), OR (1 declarations), consistent with how narrowly this hazard type is geographically concentrated.
What is actually in FEMA's tsunami file?
The complete OpenFEMA record is small enough to inspect title by title: 3 declaration rows resolve to 2 named records. A row is a federal administrative action, not necessarily a separate physical event.
- TSUNAMI WAVES: California, Hawaii; Major Disaster (DR); 2011-04-18, 2011-04-08. OpenFEMA carries 2 declaration rows under this title.
- TSUNAMI WAVE SURGE: Oregon; Major Disaster (DR); 2011-03-25.
The repeated TSUNAMI WAVES title shows why declaration totals should not be read as a literal incident count.
Which federal declaration does tsunami actually get?
With only 3 declarations on record, this type is too thin to express as a reliable percentage split, so the raw breakdown is: 3 Major Disaster (DR). Each federal instrument carries different assistance: a Major Disaster declaration can unlock Individual Assistance and Hazard Mitigation funding, an Emergency declaration is narrower and faster, and Fire Management Assistance covers firefighting costs during an active incident.
Declarations by State
| # | State | Declarations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | California CA | 1 |
| 2 | Hawaii HI | 1 |
| 3 | Oregon OR | 1 |
Declarations by Year
| Year | Declarations |
|---|---|
| 2011 | 3 |
Recent Tsunami Declarations
Download all 3 declarations as CSV . Source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0. The table below lists the 3 most recent; the file carries every one.
| DR# | Title | State | Type | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | TSUNAMI WAVES | CA | DR | 2011-04-18 |
| 1967 | TSUNAMI WAVES | HI | DR | 2011-04-08 |
| 1964 | TSUNAMI WAVE SURGE | OR | DR | 2011-03-25 |
What this means for Tsunami declarations
Tsunami is rarer than 88% of the other declaration types FEMA tracks, with 3 FEMA declaration records; California leads with 1.
- California accounts for the largest share of tsunami declarations in this corpus. California 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.