Lee County, Florida: hazard history
What federal records show has already happened here: disaster declarations, storms, and flood insurance claims. This is a record of the past. It is not a forecast and not a hazard score.
At a glance
What this means
- The event NOAA recorded most often here is Thunderstorm Wind, with 127 records.
- The costliest single record is Hurricane (Typhoon) in 2022: $7.0B in property damage, in the dollars of that year.
- The deadliest record is Hurricane (Typhoon) in 2022, with 60 deaths.
- FEMA has declared 45 disasters that named this county, most often for hurricane.
- The worst year for flood insurance claims was 2022, with 28,889 claims.
What this can't tell you
- What happens next. Past events do not set the odds of the next one.
- Anything before 1996 from NOAA. That is when NOAA began recording every event type; earlier files hold only tornado, hail and wind, so they are left out on purpose.
- Today's cost. Damage and payments are in the dollars of the year they happened.
- A flood rate. NFIP counts claims but not how many homes were insured, and many flooded homes carry no flood insurance.
- Earthquakes, wildfire perimeters or radar-detected hail. Those records are not tied to counties.
Federal disaster declarations (FEMA)
FEMA declared 45 disasters that named Lee County between 1965 and 2024.
| Incident type | Disasters | Most recent |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | 21 | 2024 |
| Fire | 6 | 2017 |
| Freezing | 5 | 2000 |
| Tropical Storm | 5 | 2024 |
| Severe Storm | 4 | 2021 |
| Biological | 2 | 2020 |
| Coastal Storm | 2 | 2001 |
Most recent declarations
- EM-3622 2024 · Hurricane · Hurricane Milton
- DR-4834 2024 · Hurricane · Hurricane Milton
- DR-4828 2024 · Hurricane · Hurricane Helene
- EM-3615 2024 · Tropical Storm · Tropical Storm Helene
- EM-3605 2024 · Tropical Storm · Tropical Storm Debby
- DR-4806 2024 · Tropical Storm · Hurricane Debby
- EM-3596 2023 · Tropical Storm · Tropical Storm Idalia
- DR-4734 2023 · Hurricane · Hurricane Idalia
- DR-4680 2022 · Hurricane · Hurricane Nicole
- EM-3587 2022 · Tropical Storm · Tropical Storm Nicole
Not counted above: 33 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Florida. 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.
Storms recorded by NOAA, by type
| Event type | Records | Deaths | Injuries | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 127 | 0 | 0 | $2.0M |
| Hail | 96 | 0 | 0 | $50K |
| Tornado | 58 | 0 | 10 | $23.5M |
| Lightning | 57 | 14 | 18 | $2.4M |
| Dense Fog | 45 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Flood | 41 | 0 | 0 | $502.4M |
| Tropical Storm | 21 | 1 | 0 | $91.4M |
| Funnel Cloud | 18 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Waterspout | 18 | 0 | 0 | $50K |
| Wildfire | 17 | 0 | 0 | $103.0M |
| Heavy Rain | 15 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Frost/Freeze | 13 | 0 | 0 | $250K |
| Hurricane (Typhoon) | 12 | 62 | 30 | $9.5B |
| Flash Flood | 11 | 0 | 0 | $1.4M |
| High Wind | 7 | 0 | 2 | $323K |
| Storm Surge/Tide | 7 | 0 | 0 | $2.3M |
| Heat | 4 | 4 | 0 | $0 |
| Rip Current | 4 | 4 | 1 | $0 |
| Dust Devil | 3 | 0 | 0 | $33K |
| Coastal Flood | 2 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Extreme Cold/Wind Chill | 2 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Tropical Depression | 2 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Cold/Wind Chill | 1 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Strong Wind | 1 | 0 | 0 | $1K |
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.
Year by year
NOAA storm event records in Lee County each year. The busiest year was 1999, with 55 records.
Show the numbers for every year
| Year | Records | Deaths | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 33 | 0 | $712K |
| 1997 | 41 | 2 | $674K |
| 1998 | 50 | 3 | $913K |
| 1999 | 55 | 0 | $1.3M |
| 2000 | 44 | 0 | $5.6M |
| 2001 | 40 | 1 | $6.8M |
| 2002 | 12 | 1 | $103K |
| 2003 | 16 | 1 | $89K |
| 2004 | 25 | 3 | $2.0B |
| 2005 | 10 | 3 | $101.0M |
| 2006 | 10 | 1 | $554K |
| 2007 | 18 | 1 | $4.5M |
| 2008 | 19 | 0 | $963K |
| 2009 | 11 | 1 | $119K |
| 2010 | 10 | 0 | $96K |
| 2011 | 13 | 0 | $123K |
| 2012 | 5 | 1 | $2.3M |
| 2013 | 6 | 0 | $3K |
| 2014 | 6 | 1 | $14K |
| 2015 | 14 | 1 | $58K |
| 2016 | 20 | 1 | $2.8M |
| 2017 | 18 | 2 | $828.6M |
| 2018 | 6 | 0 | $500K |
| 2019 | 8 | 1 | $645K |
| 2020 | 18 | 0 | $100.1M |
| 2021 | 7 | 1 | $775K |
| 2022 | 23 | 60 | $7.0B |
| 2023 | 11 | 0 | $8K |
| 2024 | 16 | 0 | $155.1M |
| 2025 | 9 | 0 | $0 |
| 2026 | 8 | 0 | $450K |
Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.
Notable events
Costliest records
- Hurricane (Typhoon) · Sep 28, 2022$7.0BNOAA name: COASTAL LEE · 60 deaths · NOAA record 1058654
- Hurricane (Typhoon) · Aug 13, 2004$2.0BNOAA name: LEE · 1 death · 30 injuries · NOAA record 5417271
- Flood · Sep 10, 2017$500.0MNOAA name: LEE · NOAA record 721630
- Hurricane (Typhoon) · Sep 10, 2017$163.1MNOAA name: COASTAL LEE · 1 death · NOAA record 721735
- Hurricane (Typhoon) · Sep 10, 2017$163.1MNOAA name: INLAND LEE · NOAA record 721736
Deadliest records
- Hurricane (Typhoon) · Sep 28, 202260 deathsNOAA name: COASTAL LEE · $7.0B damage · NOAA record 1058654
- Rip Current · Mar 28, 19972 deathsNOAA name: LEE · NOAA record 5611251
- Lightning · Aug 18, 20052 deathsNOAA name: LEE · 1 injury · NOAA record 5470020
- Heat · Jun 3, 19981 deathNOAA name: LEE · NOAA record 5658517
- Heat · Jun 13, 19981 deathNOAA name: LEE · NOAA record 5658817
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.
Flood insurance claims (NFIP)
The National Flood Insurance Program paid $4.0B on 48,456 claims in Lee County from 1978 to 2024.
| Year | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 28,889 | $3.4B |
| 2024 | 7,322 | $419.3M |
| 2004 | 4,280 | $45.6M |
| 2017 | 2,560 | $66.0M |
| 2001 | 1,609 | $17.5M |
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.
Hazard vulnerability analysis: the probability column for a facility in Lee County
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.
| Hazard | Prob. | Basis, from the county record |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane / Tropical Storm | 3 | 42 NCEI events over 31 years (1.35/yr). 28 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Tornado | 3 | 58 NCEI events over 31 years (1.87/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Severe Thunderstorm | 3 | 280 NCEI events over 31 years (9.03/yr). 4 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Flood, External | 3 | 69 NCEI events over 31 years (2.23/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Temperature Extremes | 3 | 20 NCEI events over 31 years (0.65/yr). 5 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Wild Fire | 3 | 17 NCEI events over 31 years (0.55/yr). 6 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| High Wind (non-convective) | 2 | 8 NCEI events over 31 years (0.26/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Epidemic | 2 | 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Snow Fall / Blizzard / Ice Storm | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Drought | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Earthquake | 1 | No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Landslide | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Tidal Wave / Tsunami | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Volcano | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Dam Inundation | 1 | No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
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 Lee 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.
How this page was made
- 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 by county and others by forecast zone, and names both. Records are counted as Lee County when their NOAA name is this county's name, alone or with a word like “Coastal” or “Inland” in front. The county codes NOAA also publishes have not been loaded for Florida yet; when they are, this page will count by code instead, and some counties' records will grow. NOAA names counted here: COASTAL LEE, INLAND LEE, LEE. Zones named for something else, such as a mountain range or two counties at once, are left out: 0% of Florida's NOAA records.
- Counts last rebuilt from the source records on Sep 15, 2026.
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Recorded history from federal public records. Not a hazard score, a risk score, or a forecast, and not a substitute for professional actuarial or emergency-management assessment. Decision-support intelligence — not a primary alerting or dispatch system. Verify against official sources.