Polk County, Georgia: hazard history

FEMA declared 17 disasters that named Polk County between 1974 and 2026.

Most recent declarations

• EM-3642 2026 · Winter Storm · Severe Winter Storm
• EM-3616 2024 · Tropical Storm · Hurricane Helene
• DR-4501 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3464 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-4338 2017 · Hurricane · Hurricane Irma
• EM-3387 2017 · Hurricane · Hurricane Irma
• EM-3368 2014 · Severe Ice Storm · Severe Winter Storm
• DR-1973 2011 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And Associated Flooding
• DR-1750 2008 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Tornadoes
• EM-3218 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation

Not counted above: 6 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Georgia. 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.

NOAA storm event records in Polk County each year. The busiest year was 2023, with 26 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Tornado · Apr 27, 2011$7.0M
   NOAA name: POLK · NOAA record 305338
2. Flash Flood · Apr 9, 2019$5.0M
   NOAA name: POLK · NOAA record 822763
3. Tornado · Mar 15, 2008$3.5M
   NOAA name: POLK · 1 death · 1 injury · NOAA record 87295
4. Hail · Apr 11, 2013$1.2M
   NOAA name: POLK · NOAA record 444556
5. Tornado · Apr 3, 2000$1.0M
   NOAA name: POLK · 6 injuries · NOAA record 5138931

Deadliest records

1. Tornado · Mar 15, 20081 death
   NOAA name: POLK · $3.5M damage · 1 injury · NOAA record 87295
2. Thunderstorm Wind · Mar 18, 20131 death
   NOAA name: POLK · $15K damage · 1 injury · NOAA record 437021

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 $862K on 136 claims in Polk County from 1978 to 2021.

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 Polk 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 by county and others by forecast zone, and names both. Records are counted as Polk 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 Georgia yet; when they are, this page will count by code instead, and some counties' records will grow. NOAA names counted here: POLK. Zones named for something else, such as a mountain range or two counties at once, are left out: 0% of Georgia's NOAA records.
• Counts last rebuilt from the source records on Sep 15, 2026.