Putnam County, Indiana: hazard history

FEMA declared 19 disasters that named Putnam County between 1990 and 2026.

Most recent declarations

• EM-3641 2026 · Winter Storm · Severe Winter Storm
• EM-3456 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-4515 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• DR-4173 2014 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm
• DR-1997 2011 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, And
• DR-1766 2008 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Flooding, And Tornadoes
• EM-3274 2007 · Snowstorm · Snow
• EM-3238 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation
• DR-1573 2005 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storms And Flooding
• DR-1542 2004 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes And Flooding

Not counted above: 3 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Indiana. 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 Putnam County each year. The busiest year was 2008, with 39 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Flash Flood · Sep 1, 2003$1.0M
   NOAA name: Putnam County · NOAA record 5336981
2. Flash Flood · Jun 7, 2008$500K
   NOAA name: Putnam County · NOAA record 118347
3. Thunderstorm Wind · Jun 29, 2023$350K
   NOAA name: Putnam County · NOAA record 1098527
4. Winter Weather · Feb 14, 2016$250K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 11 injuries · NOAA record 622024
5. Tornado · Aug 23, 2002$200K
   NOAA name: Putnam County · NOAA record 5309990

Deadliest records

1. High Wind · Mar 3, 20232 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $25K damage · 2 injuries · NOAA record 1074596

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 $499K on 23 claims in Putnam County from 1982 to 2024.

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 Putnam 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 Putnam 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 380 records, 282 were filed against this county and 98 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 Indiana'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.