Mason County, Michigan: hazard history

FEMA declared 9 disasters that named Mason County between 1977 and 2020.

Most recent declarations

• DR-4494 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3455 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-1777 2008 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• EM-3225 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation
• DR-1226 1998 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms
• DR-774 1986 · Flood · Severe Storms & Flooding
• DR-744 1985 · Flood · Severe Storms And Flooding
• 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 Mason County each year. The busiest year was 2008, with 25 records.

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

Costliest records

1. High Wind · Mar 8, 2017$5.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 674060
2. Flash Flood · Jun 13, 2008$3.0M
   NOAA name: Mason County · NOAA record 117391
3. Flood · Apr 17, 2013$3.0M
   NOAA name: Mason County · NOAA record 443975
4. Thunderstorm Wind · May 31, 1998$1.0M
   NOAA name: Mason County · 5 injuries · NOAA record 5655050
5. Flood · May 23, 2004$1.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5411109

Deadliest records

1. Rip Current · Sep 3, 20231 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 1127082

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 $238K on 13 claims in Mason 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 Mason 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 Mason 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 233 records, 92 were filed against this county and 141 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.