Flood Disaster Declarations by State

FEMA has issued 1,343 federal disaster declarations for flooding, hurricanes, or coastal storms across the 50 states and DC. A declaration is issued when a disaster overwhelms state and local response capacity and the President approves federal assistance - it is a distinct, higher bar than a flood simply occurring, and most flood events never trigger one.

Declarations by decade since federal disaster tracking began. A rising count partly reflects more development in flood-prone areas and partly reflects changes in how readily declarations are requested and approved - it is not purely a measure of storm frequency.

The current decade is still in progress and its bar covers roughly 6.7 of 10 years, so it is not directly comparable to the completed decades beside it. Per year, the 2020s are running at about 25.2 declarations against 27.3 across the 2010s - close to flat, not the drop the raw bars suggest.

1. 1.FL
   75
2. 2.LA
   72
3. 3.TX
   71
4. 4.CA
   46
5. 5.NY
   44
6. 6.NC
   42
7. 7.WV
   40
8. 8.WA
   36
9. 9.AL
   35
10. 10.PA
    35

The most recently declared flood, hurricane, and coastal storm disasters on record, nationwide.

Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries API. Data sourced August 2026.