New Hanover County, North Carolina: hazard history
What federal records show has already happened here: disaster declarations, storms, and flood insurance claims. This is a record of the past. It is not a forecast and not a hazard score.
At a glance
What this means
- The event NOAA recorded most often here is Thunderstorm Wind, with 119 records.
- The costliest single record is Hurricane (Typhoon) in 2018: $1.0B in property damage, in the dollars of that year.
- The deadliest record is Rip Current in 2000, with 3 deaths.
- FEMA has declared 32 disasters that named this county, most often for hurricane.
- The worst year for flood insurance claims was 1996, with 3,847 claims.
What this can't tell you
- What happens next. Past events do not set the odds of the next one.
- Anything before 1996 from NOAA. That is when NOAA began recording every event type; earlier files hold only tornado, hail and wind, so they are left out on purpose.
- Today's cost. Damage and payments are in the dollars of the year they happened.
- A flood rate. NFIP counts claims but not how many homes were insured, and many flooded homes carry no flood insurance.
- Earthquakes, wildfire perimeters or radar-detected hail. Those records are not tied to counties.
Federal disaster declarations (FEMA)
FEMA declared 32 disasters that named New Hanover County between 1984 and 2026.
| Incident type | Disasters | Most recent |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | 23 | 2022 |
| Tropical Storm | 3 | 2024 |
| Biological | 2 | 2020 |
| Severe Storm | 2 | 2010 |
| Snowstorm | 1 | 1993 |
| Winter Storm | 1 | 2026 |
Most recent declarations
- EM-3637 2026 · Winter Storm · Severe Winter Storm
- EM-3617 2024 · Tropical Storm · Hurricane Helene
- DR-4837 2024 · Tropical Storm · Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight
- EM-3608 2024 · Tropical Storm · Tropical Storm Debby
- EM-3586 2022 · Hurricane · Hurricane Ian
- DR-4568 2020 · Hurricane · Hurricane Isaias
- EM-3534 2020 · Hurricane · Hurricane Isaias
- EM-3471 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
- DR-4487 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
- EM-3423 2019 · Hurricane · Hurricane Dorian
Not counted above: 13 statewide declarations, which covered every county in North Carolina. 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.
Storms recorded by NOAA, by type
| Event type | Records | Deaths | Injuries | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 119 | 0 | 1 | $1.8M |
| Flash Flood | 113 | 0 | 0 | $7.5M |
| Hail | 87 | 0 | 0 | $17K |
| Rip Current | 77 | 20 | 14 | $0 |
| Flood | 62 | 0 | 2 | $27K |
| Heavy Rain | 46 | 0 | 2 | $1.7M |
| Lightning | 41 | 5 | 17 | $1.1M |
| Tropical Storm | 27 | 0 | 0 | $3.0M |
| Tornado | 26 | 0 | 7 | $2.1M |
| High Wind | 17 | 0 | 2 | $30K |
| Winter Storm | 17 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Coastal Flood | 14 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Drought | 11 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Funnel Cloud | 11 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Hurricane (Typhoon) | 11 | 1 | 1 | $1.3B |
| Heat | 8 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Strong Wind | 6 | 0 | 0 | $30K |
| Waterspout | 6 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Storm Surge/Tide | 5 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Heavy Snow | 3 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Frost/Freeze | 2 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| High Surf | 2 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Ice Storm | 2 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Wildfire | 2 | 0 | 0 | $3K |
| Tropical Depression | 1 | 0 | 0 | $20K |
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.
Year by year
NOAA storm event records in New Hanover County each year. The busiest year was 2015, with 51 records.
Show the numbers for every year
| Year | Records | Deaths | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 29 | 0 | $218.0M |
| 1997 | 17 | 0 | $0 |
| 1998 | 35 | 0 | $26.7M |
| 1999 | 12 | 0 | $37.0M |
| 2000 | 17 | 4 | $161K |
| 2001 | 15 | 0 | $65K |
| 2002 | 19 | 0 | $270K |
| 2003 | 18 | 0 | $852K |
| 2004 | 14 | 0 | $3.0M |
| 2005 | 18 | 1 | $5.3M |
| 2006 | 18 | 0 | $0 |
| 2007 | 13 | 2 | $80K |
| 2008 | 22 | 1 | $0 |
| 2009 | 25 | 4 | $51K |
| 2010 | 39 | 0 | $2.5M |
| 2011 | 35 | 0 | $3.1M |
| 2012 | 34 | 1 | $213K |
| 2013 | 21 | 0 | $100K |
| 2014 | 21 | 1 | $346K |
| 2015 | 51 | 0 | $724K |
| 2016 | 26 | 1 | $2.8M |
| 2017 | 13 | 3 | $26K |
| 2018 | 38 | 1 | $1.0B |
| 2019 | 24 | 1 | $646K |
| 2020 | 11 | 2 | $120K |
| 2021 | 17 | 1 | $0 |
| 2022 | 24 | 1 | $0 |
| 2023 | 24 | 1 | $30K |
| 2024 | 39 | 1 | $117K |
| 2025 | 13 | 0 | $20K |
| 2026 | 14 | 0 | $0 |
Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.
Notable events
Costliest records
- Hurricane (Typhoon) · Sep 14, 2018$1.0BNOAA name: INLAND NEW HANOVER · 1 injury · NOAA record 786760
- Hurricane (Typhoon) · Sep 5, 1996$200.0MNOAA name: NEW HANOVER · NOAA record 5578509
- Hurricane (Typhoon) · Sep 15, 1999$37.0MNOAA name: NEW HANOVER · NOAA record 5717592
- Hurricane (Typhoon) · Aug 26, 1998$26.2MNOAA name: NEW HANOVER · NOAA record 5664368
- Hurricane (Typhoon) · Jul 12, 1996$18.0MNOAA name: NEW HANOVER · NOAA record 5564438
Deadliest records
- Rip Current · Sep 13, 20003 deathsNOAA name: NEW HANOVER · NOAA record 5177829
- Rip Current · Oct 7, 20172 deathsNOAA name: COASTAL NEW HANOVER · NOAA record 724208
- Lightning · Aug 5, 20202 deathsNOAA name: NEW HANOVER · $2K damage · NOAA record 922401
- Rip Current · Aug 20, 20001 deathNOAA name: NEW HANOVER · NOAA record 5177926
- Rip Current · Jul 27, 20051 deathNOAA name: NEW HANOVER · NOAA record 5470810
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.
Flood insurance claims (NFIP)
The National Flood Insurance Program paid $194.2M on 11,244 claims in New Hanover County from 1978 to 2024.
| Year | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 3,847 | $93.8M |
| 1999 | 2,394 | $30.8M |
| 2018 | 1,635 | $34.3M |
| 1998 | 1,397 | $9.3M |
| 2024 | 426 | $15.2M |
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.
Hazard vulnerability analysis: the probability column for a facility in New Hanover County
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.
| Hazard | Prob. | Basis, from the county record |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane / Tropical Storm | 3 | 44 NCEI events over 31 years (1.42/yr). 26 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Severe Thunderstorm | 3 | 247 NCEI events over 31 years (7.97/yr). 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Flood, External | 3 | 235 NCEI events over 31 years (7.58/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Tornado | 2 | 26 NCEI events over 31 years (0.84/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Snow Fall / Blizzard / Ice Storm | 2 | 22 NCEI events over 31 years (0.71/yr). 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county. |
| Temperature Extremes | 2 | 10 NCEI events over 31 years (0.32/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Drought | 2 | 11 NCEI events over 31 years (0.35/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| High Wind (non-convective) | 2 | 23 NCEI events over 31 years (0.74/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Epidemic | 2 | 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Wild Fire | 1 | 2 NCEI events over 31 years (0.06/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Earthquake | 1 | No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Landslide | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Tidal Wave / Tsunami | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Volcano | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Dam Inundation | 1 | No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
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 New Hanover 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.
How this page was made
- 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 by county and others by forecast zone, and names both. Records are counted as New Hanover County when their NOAA name is this county's name, alone or with a word like “Coastal” or “Inland” in front. The county codes NOAA also publishes have not been loaded for North Carolina yet; when they are, this page will count by code instead, and some counties' records will grow. NOAA names counted here: COASTAL NEW HANOVER, INLAND NEW HANOVER, NEW HANOVER. Zones named for something else, such as a mountain range or two counties at once, are left out: 2% of North Carolina's NOAA records.
- Counts last rebuilt from the source records on Sep 15, 2026.
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Recorded history from federal public records. Not a hazard score, a risk score, or a forecast, and not a substitute for professional actuarial or emergency-management assessment. Decision-support intelligence — not a primary alerting or dispatch system. Verify against official sources.