Twenty-five years of federal disaster declarations

Where disaster strikes, and how often.

Every federally declared disaster and emergency since FY2000: major disasters, emergencies, and fire-management programs. Mapped, ranked, and open to explore. Drag the years, choose a hazard, and watch the rankings reorder.

3,370
declarations in range
57
states & territories
11.8%
of requests denied
25
hazard types tracked

Latest declarations

The most recent federal disaster and emergency declarations, straight from OpenFEMA and refreshed each week.

See all recent declarations

Data current through Jul 23, 2026

FM
Oregon
FM-5647Fire3 areasFEMA ↗
Jul 23, 2026
EM
Texas
EM-3649Flood33 areasFEMA ↗
Jul 18, 2026
FM
Washington
FM-5646Fire2 areasFEMA ↗
Jul 17, 2026
FM
Oregon
FM-5645Fire1 areaFEMA ↗
Jul 16, 2026
FM
Colorado
FM-5644Fire1 areaFEMA ↗
Jul 5, 2026
Years 2000 to 2025
Incident type
Declaration type what's this?

The shape of a quarter-century

Declarations spike with the country's worst years: record tornado outbreaks in 2011, the pandemic in 2020. Hover any year for its count.

Federal disaster & emergency declarations, by fiscal year3,370 declarations across the selected window

The states, ranked

Ranked by federal declarations since FY2000. Toggle off FM above to set fire-management aside and see the disaster picture underneath.

What kind of disaster?

Wildfire looks like the nation's top hazard, until you separate out fire-management declarations, a faster, lower-threshold program of its own.

The three kinds of declaration

Not every federal declaration means the same thing. The type sets what aid is unlocked, how high the bar is, and how fast it moves.

DR
Major Disaster
1,589 declarations · ~45 days to a decision

The broadest declaration. A governor requests one when an event overwhelms state and local resources, and it can unlock FEMA's full toolkit: individual assistance, public assistance, and hazard-mitigation funding. Reserved for the most serious disasters, and the slowest to approve.

EM
Emergency
485 declarations · ~22 days to a decision

A narrower, often faster form of help to protect lives, property, and public health, sometimes declared before an event even arrives. More limited in scope and funding than a major disaster. The nationwide COVID-19 response in 2020 came as emergency declarations.

FM
Fire Management Assistance
1,330 declarations · approved within a day

Funds the fighting of wildfires that threaten to become major disasters. Approved fast, often within hours, with a narrow scope and a lower bar than a major disaster. Its sheer volume is why fire tops the raw declaration counts.

A note on tribal nations. Since 2013, a federally recognized tribal nation can request a declaration directly from the President — as a sovereign government — rather than through the state it sits within. Many did during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because a tribe's declaration is its own, it is recorded under the state where the tribe is located, and Oklahoma alone is home to nearly 40 tribal nations. That is why one event can appear as many separate declarations. In the state view, these carry a Tribal Nation tag.

Browse by state

Every state and territory has its own page: the full declaration record since FY2000, denial history, and a page for each county or equivalent with a ready-to-use table for local mitigation plans.