Henry County, Iowa: hazard history

FEMA declared 16 disasters that named Henry County between 1969 and 2020.

Most recent declarations

• DR-4483 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3480 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-4421 2019 · Flood · Severe Storms And Flooding
• DR-4126 2013 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• DR-1930 2010 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Flooding, And Tornadoes
• DR-1763 2008 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• DR-1688 2007 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storms
• EM-3239 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation
• DR-1518 2004 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• DR-1420 2002 · Flood · Severe Storms And Flooding

Not counted above: 9 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Iowa. 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 Henry County each year. The busiest year was 2007, with 33 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Tornado · May 10, 2003$1.0M
   NOAA name: Henry County · NOAA record 5359422
2. Flood · Jun 1, 2008$535K
   NOAA name: Henry County · NOAA record 117271
3. Thunderstorm Wind · May 10, 2003$500K
   NOAA name: Henry County · NOAA record 5359289
4. Flood · Aug 13, 2010$500K
   NOAA name: Henry County · NOAA record 258904
5. Tornado · May 3, 2012$500K
   NOAA name: Henry County · NOAA record 383794

Deadliest records

1. Flood · Jun 23, 20001 death
   NOAA name: Henry County · NOAA record 5153816
2. Winter Weather · Mar 1, 20071 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 20409
3. Blizzard · Feb 1, 20111 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 286692

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 $0 on 1 claims in Henry County from 2013 to 2013.

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 Henry 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 Henry 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 445 records, 247 were filed against this county and 198 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.
• Counts last rebuilt from the source records on Sep 15, 2026.