Portsmouth (city) recorded 9 federal disaster and emergency declarations since FY2000 (through FY2025): 5 major disasters, 4 emergencies, and 0 fire-management declarations. Its most common hazard is hurricane.
Highlighted: Portsmouth (city), VA
Totals: FY2000–FY2025 · Page last rebuilt Sep 12, 2026 · the current in-progress fiscal year is not included in totals
9
Declarations since FY2000
5
Major disasters (DR)
4
Emergencies (EM)
0
Fire management (FM)
Jan 2026
Most recent
$8.8M
Federal PA obligated (top: debris removal)
The federal disaster record for Portsmouth (city) runs between 2003 and 2020, covering 9 declarations in all. Its most recent major disaster declaration was Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020. The hazards behind these declarations were most often hurricane, biological, and severe storm. Since 2000, FEMA has obligated about $8.8 million in Public Assistance funding to the jurisdiction, most of it for debris removal.
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 51740
CDC / ATSDR
Social Vulnerability Index
2022 county-level SVI
83.5
overall percentile nationally
Approximately 83.5% of U.S. counties have an equal or lower overall SVI ranking.
Socioeconomic status80.4
Household characteristics60.4
Racial and ethnic minority status93.7
Housing type and transportation77.7
Higher percentiles indicate greater relative social vulnerability within the CDC SVI framework. CDC SVI documentation
FEMA
National Risk Index
December 2025
54.0
overall risk score
Relatively Low
Expected annual loss$18.2MRelatively Low
NRI social vulnerability37.4Relatively Low
Community resilience76.1Relatively High
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 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.
Category
Projects
Federal share obligated
Debris removal(A)
36
$7,109,938
Emergency protective measures(B)
40
$958,007
Buildings and equipment(E)
33
$430,519
Roads and bridges(C)
7
$182,578
Parks and recreation(G)
11
$108,565
Utilities(F)
3
$22,968
All categories
130
$8,812,575
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 4-year scale. Typical wait to the first obligation here: about 72 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.
Covid-19 Pandemic 2020$190K
249 days to first federal obligation
Hurricane Matthew 2016$63K
121 days to first federal obligation
Hurricane Irene 2011$764K
72 days to first federal obligation
Severe Storms And Flooding Associated With Tropical Depression Ida And A Nor'East 2009$434K
51 days to first federal obligation
Hurricane Isabel 2003$7.4M
7 days to first federal obligation
Declared1 yr2 yr3 yr4 yr
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.
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
Hurricane 6
Biological 2
Severe Storm 1
Previous occurrences, for your mitigation plan
Every local hazard mitigation plan must document previous occurrences of each hazard. Here is that record for Portsmouth (city), sourced to OpenFEMA and refreshed weekly. Copy it straight into your plan.
Hazard
Date
FEMA declaration
Type
Biological
Apr 2, 2020
DR-4512-VA
DR
Biological
Mar 13, 2020
EM-3448-VA
EM
Hurricane
Nov 2, 2016
DR-4291-VA
DR
Hurricane
Oct 29, 2012
EM-3359-VA
EM
Hurricane
Sep 3, 2011
DR-4024-VA
DR
Hurricane
Aug 26, 2011
EM-3329-VA
EM
Severe Storm
Dec 9, 2009
DR-1862-VA
DR
Hurricane
Sep 12, 2005
EM-3240-VA
EM
Hurricane
Sep 18, 2003
DR-1491-VA
DR
Every declaration on record
DR = Major disaster (Stafford Act) · EM = Emergency declaration · FM = Fire management assistance
Showing 9 declarations
Date
Number
Type
Hazard
Title
Apr 2, 2020
DR-4512-VA
DR
Biological
Covid-19 Pandemic
Mar 13, 2020
EM-3448-VA
EM
Biological
Covid-19
Nov 2, 2016
DR-4291-VA
DR
Hurricane
Hurricane Matthew
Oct 29, 2012
EM-3359-VA
EM
Hurricane
Hurricane Sandy
Sep 3, 2011
DR-4024-VA
DR
Hurricane
Hurricane Irene
Aug 26, 2011
EM-3329-VA
EM
Hurricane
Hurricane Irene
Dec 9, 2009
DR-1862-VA
DR
Severe Storm
Severe Storms And Flooding Associated With Tropical Depression Ida And A Nor'East
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 Virginia's statewide total. Independent cities are counted separately from the counties around them, matching how FEMA designates them. Totals cover complete fiscal years (Oct 1 to Sep 30); the in-progress year may appear in the most-recent list but is not counted in the totals. Uses OpenFEMA data but is not endorsed by or affiliated with FEMA.
Cite this profile
Choose a citation style, then copy the formatted citation. This profile is derived from FEMA OpenFEMA data and is updated as the underlying Disaster Data build is refreshed.