Delta County, Michigan: hazard history

FEMA declared 6 disasters that named Delta County between 1977 and 2020.

Most recent declarations

• EM-3455 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-4494 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3225 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation
• DR-1028 1994 · Freezing · Severe Deep Freeze
• EM-3057 1978 · Snowstorm · Blizzards & Snowstorms
• EM-3035 1977 · Drought · Drought

Not counted above: 4 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Michigan. 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 Delta County each year. The busiest year was 2008, with 35 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Flood · Apr 20, 1996$800K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5578741
2. Flood · Apr 12, 2026$550K
   NOAA name: Delta County · NOAA record 1334704
3. Thunderstorm Wind · May 17, 1998$400K
   NOAA name: Delta County · 2 injuries · NOAA record 5644158
4. Thunderstorm Wind · Oct 5, 1997$300K
   NOAA name: Delta County · NOAA record 5615974
5. Tornado · Aug 31, 2020$150K
   NOAA name: Delta County · NOAA record 915479

Deadliest records

1. Winter Weather · Nov 9, 20112 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $35K damage · NOAA record 354147
2. Rip Current · Jul 17, 20131 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 508314
3. Winter Weather · Feb 22, 20171 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 681925
4. Cold/Wind Chill · Mar 16, 20201 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 879632

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 $226K on 27 claims in Delta County from 1986 to 2023.

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 Delta 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 Delta 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 532 records, 230 were filed against this county and 302 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: 2% of Michigan'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.