Every federally declared disaster and emergency since 2000: major disasters, emergencies, and fire-management programs. Mapped, ranked, and open to explore. Drag the years, choose a hazard, and watch the rankings reorder.
Declarations spike with the country's worst years: record tornado outbreaks in 2011, the pandemic in 2020. Hover any year for its count.
Ranked by federal declarations since 2000. Toggle off FM above to set fire-management aside and see the disaster picture underneath.
Wildfire looks like the nation's top hazard, until you separate out fire-management declarations, a faster, lower-threshold program of its own.
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.
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.
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.
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.