Disaster Data / States / Tennessee / Wayne County

County

Wayne County, Tennessee

Wayne County recorded 16 federal major disaster declarations since FY2000 (through FY2026), the federal government's fullest response to an event. Alongside those sit 4 emergency declarations and 0 fire management declarations, 20 in all. Its most common hazard is severe storm.

Highlighted: Wayne County, TN

Totals: FY2000 to FY2026 · Page last rebuilt Oct 26, 2026 · the current in-progress fiscal year is not included in totals

16
Major disasters
4
Emergency declarations
0
Fire management grants
20
All declarations on record
Feb 2026
Most recent
$4.8M
Federal PA obligated (top: roads and bridges)

The federal disaster record for Wayne County runs between 2002 and 2026, covering 20 declarations in all. Its most recent major disaster declaration was Severe Winter Storm in 2026. The hazards behind these declarations were most often severe storm, biological, and winter storm. Since 2000, FEMA has obligated about $4.8 million in Public Assistance funding to the jurisdiction, most of it for roads and bridges.

Past 12 months

Recent declarations and aid so far

Wayne County has been named in 2 federal declarations in the past 12 months. The figures are what FEMA has reported for Wayne County to date and grow as recovery continues. All of them fall in complete fiscal years and are counted in the totals above.

19
Households approved for assistance
$111K
Individual Assistance approved
$720K
Public Assistance obligated
DeclarationDeclaredHouseholds approvedIndividual AssistancePublic Assistance obligated
DR-4898-TNMajor disaster · Winter StormFeb 6, 2026Incident period Jan 22 to 27, 202619of 90 registered$111K$720K
EM-3635-TNEmergency · Winter StormJan 24, 2026Incident period Jan 22 to 27, 2026None reportedNone reportedNone reported yet

DR-4898-TN has approved 19 households for assistance so far, the 4th most of any Wayne County disaster in FEMA's household assistance data, which begins in 2002. The most was DR-1909-TN in 2010, with 162. COVID-19 funeral assistance is left out of this comparison. Wayne County's 19 households are less than 1% of the 37,531 approved across Tennessee under DR-4898-TN.

Individual Assistance is FEMA's Individuals and Households Program, from OpenFEMA's Housing Assistance data for owners and renters. Public Assistance is the obligated federal share from OpenFEMA's grant award activity, which usually starts posting weeks to months after a declaration. Select a declaration number to open its full event profile, with the same figures for every place it covers.

Risk and vulnerability context

Historical declarations show what has happened here. These national datasets add context about underlying natural-hazard risk and community vulnerability.

County FIPS 47181
CDC / ATSDR

Social Vulnerability Index

2022 county-level SVI
74.7
overall percentile nationally

Approximately 74.7% of U.S. counties have an equal or lower overall SVI ranking.

Socioeconomic status75.8
Household characteristics43.8
Racial and ethnic minority status32.5
Housing type and transportation92.0

Higher percentiles indicate greater relative social vulnerability within the CDC SVI framework. CDC SVI documentation

FEMA

National Risk Index

December 2025
43.0
overall risk score
Relatively Low
Expected annual loss$9.4MVery Low
NRI social vulnerability79.5Relatively High
Community resilience8.8Very Low

The NRI combines expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience to describe relative natural-hazard risk. FEMA NRI documentation

About these measures: CDC Social Vulnerability Index and FEMA National Risk Index Social Vulnerability are separate measures built with different methods. They are shown side by side for context and should not be interpreted as equivalent scores.

Federal Public Assistance obligated

$5M has been obligated to Wayne County in Public Assistance since FY2000.

$5M followed major disasters other than COVID-19.

Obligated is the committed share, not necessarily spent, and can be revised as projects close out.

Federal Public Assistance by category

Federal share obligated to this jurisdiction under FEMA Public Assistance since 2000, grouped by damage category. Figures are rounded to the nearest dollar and reflect obligations, which may change as projects close out.

CategoryProjectsFederal share obligated
Roads and bridges(C)203$3,227,098
Debris removal(A)19$1,108,959
Emergency protective measures(B)16$249,515
Management costs(Z)8$106,030
Utilities(F)6$68,200
Parks and recreation(G)5$48,718
Buildings and equipment(E)5$27,883
All categories262$4,836,403

Recovery funding, how fast it came

For each disaster, the wait from the declaration to the first federal obligation (amber), then the federal share obligating after that (teal), on a shared 2-year scale. Typical wait to the first obligation here: about 142 days. An obligation is the federal share committed to the recipient state, not funds disbursed to the locality, which comes later and is not shown.

Severe Winter Storm 2026$720K
90 days to first federal obligation
Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding 2025$659K
232 days to first federal obligation
Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, And Tornado 2023$24K
78 days to first federal obligation
Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, And Tornadoes 2023$505K
133 days to first federal obligation
Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding 2021$417K
151 days to first federal obligation
Severe Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides 2019$131K
218 days to first federal obligation
Declared1 yr2 yr

Assistance to households (Individual Assistance)

FEMA Individual Assistance to households in this jurisdiction, combined across the Housing Assistance owner and renter programs. Valid registrations are households that applied within a designated Individual Assistance area; approved counts and dollars are the households FEMA found eligible under the Individuals and Households Program. Figures are self-reported and drawn from NEMIS through OpenFEMA, not audited, and Individual Assistance exists only for disasters where it was designated, so many jurisdictions show none.

640
valid registrations
355
households approved
$1,983,814
total IHP approved
Assistance typeApproved amount
Repair and replacement$1,208,914
Rental assistance$141,506
Other needs$627,542

Hazard mitigation, what has been funded here

Federal Hazard Mitigation Assistance obligated to this jurisdiction to reduce future disaster losses, across the FEMA mitigation programs. This is the record of past mitigation investment a local hazard mitigation plan documents. Figures are federal share obligated, reported through OpenFEMA and not audited, and are separate from the Public Assistance funding above.

$117,485
federal mitigation share
2
funded projects
ProgramProjectsFederal share obligated
Hazard Mitigation Grant Program(HMGP)1$94,985
Pre-Disaster Mitigation(PDM)1$22,500

State declarations (governor)

Emergency declarations issued by the governor of this state, which are separate from and usually precede a federal declaration. A declaration is listed here when NOAA Storm Events recorded reports of the matched hazard in this jurisdiction while the order was in effect. That is evidence of local impact during a declared state emergency. It is not a statement that the governor named this jurisdiction in the order, since most state declarations apply statewide and name no localities at all. Hazard categories come from the order text. Damage figures are NOAA storm report estimates for this jurisdiction only, not the cost of the declaration.

3
state declarations with local storm evidence
30
statewide on record

Archive coverage for Tennessee: 2000-present SOS catalog via state-university mirror; legacy exact-date review pending

Source: state executive order archives collected by DisasterData Plus, joined to NOAA Storm Events. See the Plus overview for per-state coverage and method.

Most common hazards

Every declaration on record

Major disaster (DR). The big one. Opens the full toolbox: repair money for public infrastructure, help for households, and mitigation funding to reduce the next loss.

Emergency (EM). Narrower and usually faster, for protective work before or during an incident. Capped, and rarely brings household assistance. Nearly every county has one from COVID-19.

Fire management (FM). Cost sharing to fight a wildfire as it burns. Not a disaster declaration, and it does not open recovery programs.

Showing 20 declarations

DateNumberTypeHazardTitle
Feb 6, 2026DR-4898-TNDRWinter StormSevere Winter Storm
Jan 24, 2026EM-3635-TNEMWinter StormSevere Winter Storm
Jun 19, 2025DR-4878-TNDRSevere StormSevere Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding
Apr 2, 2025EM-3625-TNEMSevere StormSevere Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding
May 17, 2023DR-4712-TNDRSevere StormSevere Storms, Straight-Line Winds, And Tornado
Apr 7, 2023DR-4701-TNDRSevere StormSevere Storms, Straight-Line Winds, And Tornadoes
May 8, 2021DR-4601-TNDRTornadoSevere Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
Apr 2, 2020DR-4514-TNDRBiologicalCovid-19 Pandemic
Mar 13, 2020EM-3473-TNEMBiologicalCovid-19
Dec 6, 2019DR-4471-TNDRSevere StormSevere Storm And Straight-Line Winds
Apr 17, 2019DR-4427-TNDRFloodSevere Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides
Apr 2, 2015DR-4211-TNDRSevere Ice StormSevere Winter Storm And Flooding
May 1, 2011DR-1974-TNDRSevere StormSevere Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-Line Winds, And Associated Flooding
Sep 15, 2010DR-1937-TNDRSevere StormSevere Storms And Flooding
May 4, 2010DR-1909-TNDRSevere StormSevere Storms, Flooding, Straight-Line Winds, And Tornadoes
Aug 21, 2009DR-1856-TNDRSevere StormSevere Storms And Flooding
Feb 7, 2008DR-1745-TNDRSevere StormSevere Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-Line Winds, And Flooding
Sep 5, 2005EM-3217-TNEMHurricaneHurricane Katrina Evacuation
May 8, 2003DR-1464-TNDRSevere StormSevere Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
Apr 5, 2002DR-1408-TNDRSevere StormSevere Storms And Flooding
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How these numbers are built

Drawn from FEMA's OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries, rebuilt each week. A declaration is counted here once for each designated area it names, so a single disaster covering many localities is counted in each one. For that reason these jurisdiction counts do not sum to Tennessee's statewide total. This page counts declarations that named this jurisdiction as a designated area. Totals cover complete fiscal years (Oct 1 to Sep 30). Declarations from the fiscal year still in progress are listed in the tables on this page but are not counted in the totals until the year is complete. Uses OpenFEMA data but is not endorsed by or affiliated with FEMA.

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