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Federal disaster declarations by state since 2000

Major disaster and emergency declarations in each state since 2000, from FEMA, with the most common cause.

Compiled November 10, 2026What this measures

Photo: federal damage assessors in De Queen, Arkansas, after a tornado, April 2009. Win Henderson / FEMA, public domain. Use does not imply endorsement.

In short

Oklahoma ranks first with 62, followed by California (53) and Kansas (51).

The top five states account for 17% of the national total.

The top ten

Major disaster declarations. Each state links to its full data page.

All states, ranked

Disaster declarations by state: all states ranked
RankStateMajor disaster declarationsEmergenciesMost common causeLatest
1 Oklahoma 62 25Severe Storm2026
2 California 53 13Severe Storm2025
3 Kansas 51 8Severe Storm2026
4 Kentucky 50 7Severe Storm2026
5 Missouri 49 8Severe Storm2026
6 Tennessee 49 8Severe Storm2026
7 Alaska 47 2Severe Storm2026
8 Mississippi 47 13Severe Storm2026
9 Nebraska 46 7Severe Storm2026
10 West Virginia 46 6Severe Storm2026
11 New York 45 22Severe Storm2024
12 South Dakota 45 5Severe Storm2026
13 Florida 44 28Hurricane2026
14 Iowa 42 4Severe Storm2026
15 Alabama 41 12Severe Storm2023
16 Arkansas 41 8Severe Storm2025
17 Texas 40 15Flood2026
18 North Dakota 39 7Severe Storm2026
19 Vermont 38 6Severe Storm2024
20 Louisiana 37 25Hurricane2026
21 New Hampshire 34 12Severe Storm2026
22 Washington 33 8Severe Storm2026
23 Virginia 32 8Severe Storm2025
24 Montana 31 4Severe Storm2026
25 Maine 30 14Severe Storm2024
26 Minnesota 30 7Severe Storm2025
27 North Carolina 29 13Hurricane2025
28 Georgia 25 11Severe Storm2024
29 New Jersey 25 9Severe Storm2023
30 Ohio 25 6Severe Storm2026
31 Oregon 25 3Severe Storm2026
32 Hawaii 24 6Severe Storm2026
33 Illinois 24 7Severe Storm2024
34 New Mexico 24 16Severe Storm2026
35 Arizona 23 3Severe Storm2026
36 Indiana 23 7Severe Storm2026
37 Wisconsin 23 4Severe Storm2026
38 Pennsylvania 21 7Severe Storm2024
39 South Carolina 21 13Hurricane2026
40 Massachusetts 20 18Severe Storm2026
41 Idaho 18 2Flood2026
42 Maryland 17 6Severe Storm2021
43 Connecticut 15 14Severe Storm2024
44 Michigan 14 6Flood2026
45 Colorado 13 6Fire2026
46 Delaware 12 5Hurricane2026
47 District of Columbia 12 8Severe Storm2020
48 Utah 12 2Flood2026
49 Rhode Island 11 9Severe Storm2024
50 Wyoming 10 1Flood2024
51 Nevada 9 5Severe Storm2023

What this measures

Presidential major disaster declarations recorded by FEMA, one per state per disaster.

  • A declaration is a federal decision that a disaster exceeds state capacity. It is not a measure of how much damage occurred.
  • A hurricane that crosses three states is three declarations.

Full method and sources

More rankings

Use this data

You are welcome to quote these figures and reuse the charts in news stories, research and blog posts. Please credit the page with a link.

PublicAdjuster.cc, "Federal disaster declarations by state since 2000," https://publicadjuster.cc/data/disaster-declarations-by-state/. Compiled from the NOAA Storm Events Database and FEMA OpenFEMA data, November 10, 2026.

Download all states (CSV) How the figures are built

The underlying records are published by NOAA, FEMA and the U.S. Census Bureau. This product uses the FEMA OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

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