PlainHazard

Original research, PlainHazard editorial

Top 10 US Counties by FEMA Disaster Frequency

PlainHazard ranks US counties by the total number of FEMA disaster declarations affecting their territory, computed directly from the current county totals.

Research period:

Compiled by PlainHazard Editorial on 2026-07-25

Research question

Which US counties show the highest cumulative FEMA disaster declaration counts, and how does county-level exposure track with regional climate, coastal location, and recurring hazard types like hurricanes, severe storms, and wildfires?

Methodology

We ranked US counties by total FEMA disaster declarations, along with major disasters and each county's most common incident type, then took the top 10. Every number on this page reflects the current data; no figure is hardcoded, and the ranking updates whenever the underlying FEMA dataset is refreshed.

County declaration counts behave differently from state counts. When the President issues a major disaster declaration, FEMA names every county eligible for assistance, so a single large event can add one declaration to dozens of counties at once. A county that sits in the recurring path of a hazard, Gulf and Atlantic coastal counties for hurricanes, Plains counties for tornadoes and flooding, Western counties for wildfire, accumulates declarations across many separate events over the years and rises to the top of this ranking.

Two caveats shape how to read the list. First, county boundaries and populations vary enormously, so a high raw count does not by itself mean a county is the most dangerous place to live; a populous, large-area county is simply exposed to more events. Second, the "major" share matters, a county with many Major Disaster (DR) declarations has faced events severe enough to need the full slate of federal individual and public assistance, a stronger signal than a long tail of smaller Emergency declarations. For a normalized view of risk, pair this with each county's FEMA National Risk Index rating, which factors in expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.

See the methodology page for the source vintage and how the figures are derived.

Top 10 US Counties by FEMA Disaster Frequency

Current data, updated as FEMA publishes new declarations

records
Source Federal Emergency Management Agency

The ranked top 10

The 10 rows below reflect the current data and update automatically as FEMA publishes new declarations.

# County State Total declarations Major disasters Top incident type
1 Los Angeles California 29 6 Fire
2 Chelan Washington 24 3 Fire
3 Yupiit Regional Educational Attendance Area Alaska 19 19 Flood
4 Washoe Nevada 19 0 Fire
5 Riverside California 18 2 Fire
6 Okanogan Washington 18 6 Fire
7 Levy Florida 16 6 Hurricane
8 Owsley Kentucky 15 12 Severe Storm
9 Clay Kentucky 15 12 Severe Storm
10 Dixie Florida 15 6 Hurricane

Source: Federal Emergency Management Agency, OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries V2 (county designations). Values reflect the current data on this site, refreshed as FEMA updates the underlying dataset. Federal Emergency Management Agency, OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries V2 (county designations). Values reflect the current data on this site, refreshed as FEMA updates the underlying dataset.

Findings

Top entity in the ranking

The top-ranked county is Los Angeles, with 29 total declarations. The full top-10 is shown in the table above; no number is hardcoded. When Federal Emergency Management Agency publishes a revision, the ranking and the surrounding text update to match.

Distribution shape

The gap between the top-ranked record (29) and the 10th-ranked record (15) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated, a small number of entities accumulate the bulk of the measured quantity. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.

Aggregate context

Across the full population behind this ranking, here are the summary statistics: how many records exist in total, the sum of the ranking metric across all qualifying records, and the mean per-record value. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied (records with null or zero values on the ranking metric are excluded). This aggregate row is computed from the same dataset that powers the ranking above.

Source provenance

The records in this ranking come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries V2 (county designations). PlainHazard keeps this page in sync with the source data, so there is no stale static export sitting behind the numbers, a new FEMA release propagates to this page within hours. The methodology page documents the source URL, the vintage date, and how the figures are derived.

Why this ranking matters

Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records. The methodology page explains how an entity earns inclusion in the dataset and how the ranking column is computed at the source.

What this analysis cannot tell us

County-level disaster counts in OpenFEMA reflect the designated areas listed in each declaration. A single statewide declaration may flag all counties in a state, inflating per-county counts in states where governors frequently request statewide assistance, while counties in states that limit declarations to specifically-affected areas show lower counts even at comparable hazard exposure. Independent cities, parishes, and Census-designated areas vary in how they map to county-level FIPS codes; the OpenFEMA dataset uses FEMA's own area designations, which may not exactly match Census county boundaries. Counties spanning multiple FEMA regions or with significant tribal lands within their boundaries may show counts that differ from a strict per-FIPS aggregation.

Related data

Sources