St. Francis County, Arkansas: hazard history

FEMA declared 22 disasters that named St. Francis County between 1969 and 2026.

Most recent declarations

• EM-3636 2026 · Winter Storm · Severe Winter Storm
• EM-3627 2025 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• DR-4873 2025 · Flood · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• EM-3541 2020 · Hurricane · Hurricane Laura
• DR-4518 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3461 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-1975 2011 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Associated Flooding
• DR-1861 2009 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• DR-1845 2009 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• EM-3301 2009 · Severe Ice Storm · Severe Winter Storm

Not counted above: 6 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Arkansas. 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 St. Francis County each year. The busiest year was 2025, with 48 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Thunderstorm Wind · Jun 2, 2018$6.0M
   NOAA name: St. Francis County · 1 injury · NOAA record 766594
2. Flood · May 1, 2011$752K
   NOAA name: St. Francis County · NOAA record 319031
3. Tornado · Jan 21, 1999$500K
   NOAA name: St. Francis County · 9 injuries · NOAA record 5685666
4. Tornado · Dec 21, 2013$500K
   NOAA name: St. Francis County · 1 death · 3 injuries · NOAA record 484464
5. Flash Flood · Jun 29, 2014$500K
   NOAA name: St. Francis County · NOAA record 528684

Deadliest records

1. Heat · Jul 13, 20011 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5259925
2. Thunderstorm Wind · Apr 15, 20111 death
   NOAA name: St. Francis County · 1 injury · NOAA record 298271
3. Heat · Jul 27, 20111 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 341872
4. Tornado · Dec 21, 20131 death
   NOAA name: St. Francis County · $500K damage · 3 injuries · NOAA record 484464
5. Flood · Jan 3, 20161 death
   NOAA name: St. Francis County · NOAA record 617533

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 $447K on 27 claims in St. Francis County from 1978 to 2017.

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 2026 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 St. Francis 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 St. Francis 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 397 records, 171 were filed against this county and 226 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: 5% of Arkansas'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.