Disaster Declarations by State: 25 Years of FEMA Data for Business Continuity Planning
Disaster declarations by state are the closest thing to an official record of where business continuity plans get tested. We analyzed every FEMA declaration in the OpenFEMA dataset through 2026-10-09, focusing on major disaster declarations and excluding the COVID-19 pandemic declarations of 2020, which covered every state at once.
Major disasters by type and year, 2000 to 2026
| 00 | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Severe storm | 34 | 29 | 22 | 37 | 44 | 29 | 45 | 56 | 57 | 47 | 57 | 50 | 26 | 34 | 23 | 23 | 16 | 26 | 17 | 27 | 19 | 13 | 24 | 30 | 40 | 26 | 20 |
| Flood | 2 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 19 | 3 | 15 | 10 | 9 | 16 | 13 | 17 | 25 | 6 | 9 | 11 | 21 | 20 | 11 | 12 | |
| Hurricane or typhoon | 3 | 11 | 10 | 19 | 13 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 17 | 15 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 12 | 15 | 6 | 12 | 13 | 6 | 7 | 21 | 8 | |||||
| Wildfire | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 2 | |||
| Tornado | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | |||||||
| Winter storm | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 12 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 3 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 9 | ||
| Earthquake | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Other | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4 | |||||||||||
| All types | 45 | 45 | 49 | 56 | 68 | 48 | 52 | 63 | 75 | 59 | 81 | 99 | 47 | 62 | 45 | 43 | 46 | 59 | 59 | 61 | 47 | 56 | 47 | 71 | 100 | 45 | 57 |
Count of major disaster (DR) declarations by year declared and FEMA incident type, excluding biological (pandemic) declarations. One declaration is one state or tribal government for one event. 2026 runs to 2026-10-09.
Severe storms are the steady background of the table. Hurricane declarations peaked in 2004, 2011, and 2024, the three busiest hurricane years since 2000. 2024 produced 100 major disaster declarations, narrowly above the 99 of 2011, against an average of 59 a year over the prior decade. The year after, 2025, had 45.
Which states are declared most often?
Major disaster declarations in the ten years to 2026-10-09, top 15 states and territories, with the most frequent incident type for each.
| # | State | Declarations | Most frequent type | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CA | 32 | Severe storm | |
| 2 | TN | 23 | Severe storm | |
| 3 | AK | 22 | Severe storm | |
| 4 | KS | 21 | Severe storm | |
| 5 | MS | 21 | Severe storm | |
| 6 | OK | 20 | Severe storm | |
| 7 | KY | 19 | Severe storm | |
| 8 | SD | 18 | Severe storm | |
| 9 | MO | 18 | Severe storm | |
| 10 | NE | 18 | Severe storm | |
| 11 | MT | 16 | Flood | |
| 12 | WV | 16 | Flood | |
| 13 | FL | 15 | Hurricane or typhoon | |
| 14 | IA | 15 | Severe storm | |
| 15 | WA | 15 | Flood |
How widespread is disaster exposure?
A declaration lists the counties eligible for assistance. Across the 50 states and DC, 2,658 of 3,143 counties (85%) were designated in at least one major disaster declaration in the ten years to 2026-10-09, and 648 were designated five or more times. For most businesses, a declared disaster in their county within a decade is the norm, not the exception.
What this means for MSPs
Disaster recovery testing is easy to defer when the risk feels hypothetical. This data makes it local: an MSP can check how many declarations each client’s county has had and use that history when scoping backup, offsite replication, and recovery time objectives. Clients in counties with five or more recent declarations are the strongest case for tested failover rather than backup alone.
Frequently asked questions
How many disaster declarations does FEMA make each year?
Excluding pandemic-related declarations, FEMA issued an average of 59 major disaster declarations a year from 2016 to 2025. 2024 had the most on record, 100. 2026 has 57 through 2026-10-09.
Which state has the most federal disaster declarations?
Over the ten years to 2026-10-09, CA had the most major disaster declarations (32), followed by TN (23) and AK (22).
How many counties have had a major disaster declaration?
2,658 of the 3,143 counties and county equivalents in the 50 states and DC (85%) were designated in at least one non-pandemic major disaster declaration in the ten years to 2026-10-09. 648 were designated five or more times.
What is the most common type of disaster declaration?
Severe storms. Since 2000, they account for 871 of 1585 major disaster declarations, followed by floods and hurricanes.
What is the difference between DR, EM, and FM declarations?
A major disaster declaration (DR) opens the widest range of federal assistance. Emergency declarations (EM) provide narrower, short-term support, and fire management assistance declarations (FM) help fund firefighting. This report counts DR declarations.
Methodology
Source. FEMA, OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries (v2), all 70,566 records retrieved October 2026 (5,281 unique declarations). County list: U.S. Census Bureau 2020 national county file.
Filters. Major disaster declarations (type DR) only, excluding incident type Biological. County coverage counts county FIPS codes in the 50 states and DC that appear in the designated areas of those declarations; statewide or tribal designations without a county code are not counted as county coverage.
Limitations. Declarations reflect federal decisions to provide assistance, not every damaging event. Thresholds for a declaration vary by state population and damage. Connecticut’s 2022 switch from counties to planning regions may affect a few recent county matches.
Not advice. This is an analysis of public disaster records, not a risk assessment of any location.
Cite as:The Uptime Report. "Disaster Declarations by State: 25 Years of FEMA Data for Business Continuity Planning." October 2026. https://theuptimereport.com/disaster-declarations-by-state/
References
- FEMA, OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2. Accessed October 2026.
- FEMA, How a disaster gets declared. Accessed October 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau, ANSI and FIPS codes. Accessed October 2026.
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