Updated May 2026
Counties with the Most Disaster Declarations
The 100 U.S. counties with the most FEMA flood-related disaster declarations. Ranked using FEMA NFIP claim and federal disaster-declaration data from the public OpenFEMA API.
What This Ranking Tells You
Federal disaster declarations are a cleaner signal of recurring large-loss flood events than raw claim counts, because each declaration represents a flood severe enough to exceed state/local response capacity. Ascension has logged 47 flood-related declarations. Counties on this list are typically the same places that show up in news coverage of hurricanes, river flooding, and major storm events — a stable group across LA.
Average federal flood-disaster declarations across the top 10 counties: 42. Most of these places have lived through more than a dozen declared floods in the dataset window — a recurring rhythm of evacuation, response, and recovery. For homeowners, that cadence is more useful than a single-storm headline because it captures the long-run probability of major event recurrence.
Top 100 by Disasters
Grade mix across this list: 0 F · 1 D · 1 C · 65 B · 33 A. Click any county for the full profile, including the four factor scores that feed the composite, the full claim and disaster history, and the active NFIP policy count.
| # | County | State | Grade | Score | Disasters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ascension | LA | B | 29 | 47 |
| 2 | St. Martin | LA | B | 27 | 45 |
| 3 | Terrebonne | LA | B | 39 | 44 |
| 4 | Lafourche | LA | B | 38 | 43 |
| 5 | St. Charles | LA | B | 38 | 42 |
| 6 | Assumption | LA | B | 30 | 42 |
| 7 | St. Mary | LA | B | 27 | 41 |
| 8 | East Baton Rouge | LA | B | 33 | 40 |
| 9 | Livingston | LA | B | 29 | 40 |
| 10 | St. Tammany | LA | B | 25 | 40 |
| 11 | Jefferson | LA | B | 40 | 39 |
| 12 | St. Bernard | LA | B | 35 | 39 |
| 13 | Iberville | LA | B | 25 | 39 |
| 14 | Tangipahoa | LA | B | 25 | 39 |
| 15 | St. John the Baptist | LA | B | 39 | 38 |
| 16 | Plaquemines | LA | B | 36 | 38 |
| 17 | Iberia | LA | B | 24 | 38 |
| 18 | Vermilion | LA | B | 22 | 38 |
| 19 | Pointe Coupee | LA | B | 21 | 38 |
| 20 | West Feliciana | LA | B | 27 | 36 |
| 21 | Rapides | LA | B | 25 | 36 |
| 22 | St. James | LA | B | 24 | 36 |
| 23 | Lafayette | LA | B | 22 | 35 |
| 24 | Washington | LA | B | 21 | 35 |
| 25 | St. Landry | LA | A | 20 | 35 |
| 26 | Calcasieu | LA | B | 36 | 33 |
| 27 | Cameron | LA | B | 26 | 33 |
| 28 | East Feliciana | LA | B | 25 | 33 |
| 29 | Allen | LA | B | 32 | 32 |
| 30 | Catahoula | LA | A | 20 | 32 |
| 31 | Acadia | LA | A | 18 | 32 |
| 32 | Avoyelles | LA | B | 32 | 31 |
| 33 | Beauregard | LA | B | 24 | 31 |
| 34 | Jefferson Davis | LA | B | 24 | 31 |
| 35 | St. Helena | LA | B | 24 | 31 |
| 36 | Gulf | FL | B | 32 | 30 |
| 37 | Franklin | FL | B | 31 | 30 |
| 38 | West Baton Rouge | LA | B | 26 | 30 |
| 39 | Orleans | LA | A | 20 | 30 |
| 40 | Bay | FL | A | 19 | 30 |
| 41 | Ouachita | LA | A | 18 | 30 |
| 42 | Santa Rosa | FL | B | 32 | 29 |
| 43 | Okaloosa | FL | B | 31 | 29 |
| 44 | Concordia | LA | B | 24 | 29 |
| 45 | Natchitoches | LA | B | 23 | 29 |
| 46 | Escambia | FL | B | 32 | 28 |
| 47 | La Salle | LA | B | 29 | 28 |
| 48 | Franklin | LA | B | 21 | 28 |
| 49 | Manatee | FL | B | 35 | 27 |
| 50 | Caldwell | LA | B | 22 | 27 |
| 51 | Monroe | FL | B | 21 | 27 |
| 52 | Collier | FL | B | 39 | 26 |
| 53 | Broward | FL | B | 33 | 26 |
| 54 | Wakulla | FL | B | 29 | 26 |
| 55 | Walton | FL | B | 29 | 26 |
| 56 | Vernon | LA | B | 23 | 26 |
| 57 | Walsh | ND | B | 21 | 26 |
| 58 | Martin | FL | A | 20 | 26 |
| 59 | Evangeline | LA | A | 18 | 26 |
| 60 | Palm Beach | FL | A | 17 | 26 |
| 61 | Mobile | AL | A | 15 | 26 |
| 62 | Harris | TX | D | 74 | 25 |
| 63 | Sarasota | FL | B | 36 | 25 |
| 64 | Baldwin | AL | B | 31 | 25 |
| 65 | Harrison | MS | B | 29 | 25 |
| 66 | Jackson | MS | B | 23 | 25 |
| 67 | Pembina | ND | B | 21 | 25 |
| 68 | Grant | LA | B | 21 | 25 |
| 69 | Brevard | FL | A | 18 | 25 |
| 70 | Richland | LA | A | 16 | 25 |
| 71 | Brunswick | NC | A | 16 | 25 |
| 72 | St. Lucie | FL | A | 14 | 25 |
| 73 | Hyde | NC | B | 28 | 24 |
| 74 | Dixie | FL | B | 23 | 24 |
| 75 | Calhoun | FL | A | 20 | 24 |
| 76 | Gadsden | FL | A | 20 | 24 |
| 77 | Holmes | FL | A | 20 | 24 |
| 78 | Liberty | FL | A | 20 | 24 |
| 79 | Washington | FL | A | 20 | 24 |
| 80 | Utuado | PR | A | 20 | 24 |
| 81 | Pearl River | MS | A | 18 | 24 |
| 82 | Grand Forks | ND | A | 15 | 24 |
| 83 | San Patricio | TX | A | 14 | 24 |
| 84 | Lee | FL | C | 60 | 23 |
| 85 | Hillsborough | FL | B | 37 | 23 |
| 86 | Pasco | FL | B | 32 | 23 |
| 87 | Craven | NC | B | 29 | 23 |
| 88 | Pender | NC | B | 28 | 23 |
| 89 | Bossier | LA | B | 22 | 23 |
| 90 | Pamlico | NC | B | 21 | 23 |
| 91 | Richland | ND | A | 20 | 23 |
| 92 | George | MS | A | 20 | 23 |
| 93 | Miami-Dade | FL | A | 20 | 23 |
| 94 | Adjuntas | PR | A | 20 | 23 |
| 95 | Orocovis | PR | A | 20 | 23 |
| 96 | Stone | MS | A | 20 | 23 |
| 97 | East Carroll | LA | A | 20 | 23 |
| 98 | Sabine | LA | A | 20 | 23 |
| 99 | Levy | FL | A | 19 | 23 |
| 100 | Madison | LA | A | 18 | 23 |
How These Ranks Are Calculated
The composite flood risk score combines four normalized factors — claims density (40%), disaster frequency (25%), claim severity (20%), and year-over-year trend (15%). Where this ranking uses a single direct metric (claims, payouts, disasters, or policies), counties are sorted by that field alone. Source: FEMA OpenFEMA (DisasterDeclarationsSummaries v2 and FimaNfipClaims). Full methodology: methodology page.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is "Disasters" measured for this ranking?
For this ranking, counties are ordered by disasters drawn directly from FEMA OpenFEMA data — either NFIP claims totals, claim payouts, federal disaster declarations, active policies, or the four-factor composite score. Tied counties keep their natural alphabetical order. The composite-score formula and per-factor weights are documented on the methodology page.
Why are the same states dominating multiple rankings?
A small number of states — typically Louisiana, Texas, Florida, New York, and New Jersey — appear repeatedly across the riskiest-counties, most-claims, and highest-payouts lists. The cause is the same: hurricane and tropical-storm exposure puts a large share of the housing stock within reach of storm surge, and federally mandated flood-insurance rules in Special Flood Hazard Areas concentrate NFIP take-up there.
Does a high ranking mean every property in that county is at risk?
No. Rankings are county-level aggregates, and flood risk varies sharply within a single county. A coastal county can post huge claim totals from a few low-elevation neighborhoods while most of its land sits well above any flood crest. Always layer this with the parcel-level FEMA flood-zone designation from fema.gov/flood-maps.
How current is this ranking?
Rankings are recomputed every time the underlying FEMA dataset refreshes from the OpenFEMA API. The current dataset covers 3.3K counties, 100K NFIP claims, and was last updated on 2026-05-16.
Where does the underlying data come from?
Two FEMA datasets: DisasterDeclarationsSummaries v2 (federally declared disasters filtered to flood-related types) and FimaNfipClaims (individual NFIP claims aggregated by county FIPS code). Both are public-domain U.S. government work, distributed through the OpenFEMA API. Real-time stream-gauge context that complements the federal aggregates is at waterdata.usgs.gov.
Counties with the Most Disaster Declarations: top 100 U.S. counties ranked by disasters from FEMA NFIP and disaster-declaration data.