Washington County, Alabama: hazard history

FEMA declared 27 disasters that named Washington County between 1975 and 2024.

Most recent declarations

• EM-3618 2024 · Hurricane · Hurricane Helene
• DR-4573 2020 · Hurricane · Hurricane Zeta
• EM-3545 2020 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sally
• DR-4503 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3472 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• EM-3394 2017 · Hurricane · Hurricane Nate
• DR-4349 2017 · Hurricane · Hurricane Nate
• EM-3389 2017 · Hurricane · Hurricane Irma
• DR-4176 2014 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding
• EM-3319 2011 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Straight-line Winds

Not counted above: 5 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Alabama. A declaration is a decision to send federal help, not a measure of how bad an event was. Records run from 1953. Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries.

Records start in 1996. Damage is NOAA's estimate at the time, in nominal dollars, and is often rounded; it is not insurance claims data. A storm that crossed two NOAA zones in this county is recorded, and counted, once per zone. A storm filed against a forecast zone is counted in every county that zone covers, with the whole storm's damage; do not add these figures across counties.

NOAA storm event records in Washington County each year. The busiest year was 1997, with 23 records.

Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.

Costliest records

1. Tornado · Jan 10, 2009$2.5M
   NOAA name: Washington County · NOAA record 147391
2. Tornado · Apr 15, 2011$2.0M
   NOAA name: Washington County · 3 deaths · 3 injuries · NOAA record 296786
3. Thunderstorm Wind · Jun 5, 1998$1.5M
   NOAA name: Washington County · NOAA record 5654097
4. Hail · May 2, 2003$1.4M
   NOAA name: Washington County · NOAA record 5356365
5. Flash Flood · Jan 2, 2017$1.2M
   NOAA name: Washington County · NOAA record 675502

Deadliest records

1. Tornado · Apr 15, 20113 deaths
   NOAA name: Washington County · $2.0M damage · 3 injuries · NOAA record 296786

Each line is one NOAA record, linked to its page at NOAA. One large storm can appear more than once if NOAA recorded it in several zones of this county. Dollars are nominal.

The National Flood Insurance Program paid $74K on 12 claims in Washington County from 1990 to 2022.

A count of claims, not a rate: NFIP publishes no count of insured homes beside it, and most flood damage is uninsured. Nominal dollars. Records run from 1978 to 2024; claims filed without a county code are not on any county page. Source: FEMA OpenFEMA FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims.

A hazard vulnerability analysis rates each hazard for probability, impact, preparedness and response. Probability is the one column the county’s federal record can fill — NCEI storm events from 1996 to 2025 and FEMA declarations naming the county — and this is what it says for a facility here, on the 0–3 scale of the all-hazards structure surveyors expect. The other six columns are the facility’s own judgment about its building, and Calchis leaves them blank.

A dash means the record does not speak to that hazard; it is not a zero. Whether a finished document satisfies the CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule is the facility’s finding and its surveyor’s. Complete the HVA for a facility in Washington County — the technological, human and hazardous-materials rows, the six facility columns, the approval and the printed document — or read the sample analysis on that page first.

• Every figure is counted from public federal records held by Calchis: NOAA NCEI Storm Events, FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations, and FEMA NFIP claims. Nothing is modeled or estimated.
• NOAA files some events against a county and others against an NWS forecast zone, and publishes a code for both. Records are counted as Washington County by that code — county records by the county's own FIPS code, zone records through the National Weather Service's published list of which counties each zone covers. No name matching is involved. Of 288 records, 261 were filed against this county and 27 against a forecast zone covering it. A zone storm is counted in every county its zone covers, and its damage figure is the whole storm's, not this county's share — NOAA does not publish that split. So these figures describe this county; they must not be added up across counties. Left out: 1% of Alabama's NOAA records, which are marine zones or zones NWS does not map to a county.
• Counts last rebuilt from the source records on Sep 15, 2026.