Lawrence County, Mississippi: hazard history

FEMA declared 33 disasters that named Lawrence County between 1969 and 2026.

Most recent declarations

• DR-4922 2026 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• EM-3640 2026 · Winter Storm · Severe Winter Storm
• DR-4899 2026 · Winter Storm · Severe Winter Storm
• DR-4727 2023 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes.
• EM-3569 2021 · Hurricane · Hurricane Ida
• DR-4626 2021 · Hurricane · Hurricane Ida
• DR-4598 2021 · Severe Ice Storm · Severe Winter Storms
• EM-3548 2020 · Hurricane · Hurricane Delta
• EM-3544 2020 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sally
• EM-3539 2020 · Hurricane · Hurricane Marco And Tropical Storm Laura

Not counted above: 3 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Mississippi. 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 Lawrence County each year. The busiest year was 2008, with 29 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Hurricane (Typhoon) · Aug 29, 2005$100.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5472242
2. Thunderstorm Wind · May 5, 2023$1.2M
   NOAA name: Lawrence County · NOAA record 1106697
3. Tornado · Apr 12, 2020$1.1M
   NOAA name: Lawrence County · NOAA record 902862
4. Flash Flood · Jul 25, 2017$1.0M
   NOAA name: Lawrence County · NOAA record 709115
5. Tornado · Apr 12, 2020$750K
   NOAA name: Lawrence County · 2 deaths · 3 injuries · NOAA record 902815

Deadliest records

1. Tornado · Apr 12, 20202 deaths
   NOAA name: Lawrence County · $750K damage · 3 injuries · NOAA record 902815
2. Thunderstorm Wind · Mar 11, 20261 death
   NOAA name: Lawrence County · NOAA record 1323870
3. Thunderstorm Wind · Mar 11, 20261 death
   NOAA name: Lawrence County · NOAA record 1344396
4. Thunderstorm Wind · Mar 11, 20261 death
   NOAA name: Lawrence County · NOAA record 1344398

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 $643K on 42 claims in Lawrence County from 1978 to 2022.

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 Lawrence 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 Lawrence 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 411 records, 367 were filed against this county and 44 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 Mississippi'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.