📋 DECLARATIONS
Declarations by Year
Declaration Type Split
Avg Days to Approve by Year
Top 15 States — Declarations
Top 10 Incident Types — Declarations
🚫 DENIALS
Denials by Year
Denial Rate (%) by Year
Denials by Incident Type
Top States — Denial Count & Avg Days to Decision
Avg Days to Decision by Year — Denials vs. Approvals
Denial Request Type Breakdown
Declarations by Year
Incident Type Breakdown
Showing — records
Click column headers to sort
ID State Type FY Date Incident Title Days Region
Denials by Year
Top States — Denial Count & Avg Days to Decision
Denied Incident Types
Denial Rate by State (Top 15 by Rate)
Showing — records
Click column headers to sort
Request # State Type Incident Request Date Decision Date Days Region
All States & Territories — — shown
Click any row to drill into that state · Click headers to sort
State Name Declarations Denials Total Requests Denial Rate Avg Days Approve Avg Days Deny Top Incident

Drill Down by State

Click any state abbreviation above — or click a row in the table — to view its full disaster history, charts, and sortable records.

—

—

Declarations by Year
Incident Type Breakdown
Showing — records
Click column headers to sort
ID Type FY Date Incident Title Days Region

Localities — Select a State

Shows every county, parish, city, borough, and designated area — ranked by how many times each has been included in a federal disaster declaration since 2000.

—

—

Top 15 Localities — Designation Count
Designation Frequency Distribution
Showing — localities
Click a row to see that locality's full disaster history
Locality Designations Unique Disasters Avg Days to Approve Most Recent Top Incident Type
Avg Processing Time by Year — Approvals vs. Denials
Avg Days to Approve by Incident Type
Approval Time by Declaration Type
    Denial Processing Time — 10-Year Trend
    Denial processing times have increased nearly 3× since 2000. 2023–2025 averages exceed 80 days — compared to 30 days for approvals.
    FEMA Disaster Activity by Presidential Administration
    Select Administration
    Bush
    Obama
    Trump
    Biden
    Select an administration above to view its disaster declaration data.
    —
    Total PA Obligated
    —
    Total Projects
    —
    Disasters with PA
    —
    Largest Project
    —
    Top State by PA $
    —
    Top Damage Category
    Top 15 States — Total PA Obligated
    PA Obligations by Damage Category (National)
    Drill Down by State
    —
    Total HM Obligated
    —
    Total Projects
    —
    Subgrantees
    —
    Top State by HM $
    —
    HMGP Obligated
    —
    BRIC + FMA Obligated
    🌊 HAZARD MITIGATION GRANT PROGRAM (HMGP)
    HMGP provides grants to states, tribes, and territories following a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration (DR). Funds long-term mitigation measures that reduce the risk of loss of life and property from future disasters. Federal share is 75% of eligible costs.
    HMGP Obligations — Top 15 States
    HMGP Obligations by Project Type
    🏗️ BUILDING RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE & COMMUNITIES (BRIC)
    BRIC supports pre-disaster mitigation activities — not tied to a specific disaster declaration. Encourages investments in critical services, lifeline infrastructure, and community-wide resilience. Replaced the Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) grant program in FY2020.
    BRIC Obligations — Top 15 States
    BRIC Obligations by Project Type
    🏘️ FLOOD MITIGATION ASSISTANCE (FMA)
    FMA provides grants to reduce or eliminate the risk of repetitive flood damage to buildings insured under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Targets properties with repetitive or severe repetitive loss claims. Federal share is 75–100% of eligible costs for highest-risk properties.
    FMA Obligations — Top 15 States
    FMA Obligations by Project Type

    About This Site

    FEMA Disaster Data Explorer (BETA) is an independent, open-access tool for exploring federal disaster declaration and Public Assistance funding data sourced directly from the FEMA OpenFEMA API. It is not affiliated with FEMA, the federal government, or any other organization.

    Data covers fiscal years 2000–2026 and refreshes automatically every Sunday from the live FEMA API. The site is a personal project and is provided as-is for informational purposes only.

    → FEMA OpenFEMA Data Sets

    Declaration Types Explained

    FEMA issues three types of federal disaster declarations:

    • DR — Major Disaster Declaration: The most common type. Triggered by severe events (hurricanes, floods, winter storms, etc.) that overwhelm state and local resources. Unlocks the full suite of FEMA assistance programs including Public Assistance (PA), Individual Assistance (IA), and Hazard Mitigation.
    • EM — Emergency Declaration: A shorter-term declaration for events requiring immediate federal coordination. Narrower in scope than a DR — typically activates only emergency protective measures rather than full recovery programs.
    • FM — Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG): Issued for uncontrolled wildfires that threaten to become major disasters. Funds fire suppression costs for state and local agencies. FM declarations do not qualify for Public Assistance or Individual Assistance — they are a separate grant program. This is why the total disaster count (3,404) is higher than the number of PA-funded disasters (1,707).

    Public Assistance (PA) Program

    Public Assistance provides supplemental federal grant funding to state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, and certain private nonprofit organizations, to help communities respond to and recover from declared disasters.

    PA funds six categories of work:

    • A — Debris Removal: Clearance of debris created by a disaster
    • B — Emergency Protective Measures: Actions taken to protect lives and property before, during, and after a disaster
    • C — Roads & Bridges: Repair or replacement of roads, bridges, and associated features
    • D — Water Control Facilities: Repair of dams, levees, and drainage channels
    • E — Buildings & Equipment: Repair of public buildings and equipment
    • F — Utilities: Repair of water treatment, power, and other utility systems
    • G — Parks, Recreational Facilities & Other Items
    • Z — State Management Costs

    Only DR and EM declarations qualify for PA. FM declarations (wildfires) use a separate suppression cost reimbursement program.

    Data Fields & Methodology

    • Processing Time: Measured from Incident Begin Date to Declaration Date for approvals; Request Date to Status Date for denials. Records with negative processing times are excluded as data quality outliers.
    • Unique Disasters: The raw FEMA data has one row per county designated. This explorer deduplicates to one row per unique disaster event (femaDeclarationString) for all counts and averages.
    • Localities: County, parish, city, borough, and other designated areas pulled from the raw county-level designation data — not deduplicated, since each locality's designation is meaningful.
    • Presidential Terms: Assigned by actual declaration date against inauguration dates (Jan 20), not fiscal year — ensuring cross-term years like 2021 and 2025 are correctly split.
    • Denial Rate: Denials ÷ (Declarations + Denials) × 100. Rates for states with very few requests should be interpreted with caution.
    • PA National Summary: Represents all obligated PA projects since 2000 — fetched in full from the FEMA API during each weekly refresh.

    Notes & Limitations

    • 2026 data is partial — includes declarations through the most recent API refresh
    • PA financial data reflects obligated amounts, not final expenditures — projects can be adjusted after obligation
    • Denial data is currently unavailable due to a FEMA API endpoint change; this will be restored when the new endpoint is identified
    • FM declarations are counted in total disaster counts but excluded from PA analysis — they use a separate funding program
    • This is a BETA product. Data should be verified against official FEMA sources before use in formal reporting

    Last updated: —