Morris County, New Jersey: 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 303 records.
- The costliest single record is Flood in 2011: $200.0M in property damage, in the dollars of that year.
- The deadliest record is High Wind in 2012, with 3 deaths.
- FEMA has declared 33 disasters that named this county, most often for hurricane.
- The worst year for flood insurance claims was 2011, with 2,971 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 33 disasters that named Morris County between 1965 and 2021.
| Incident type | Disasters | Most recent |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | 10 | 2021 |
| Severe Storm | 8 | 2018 |
| Snowstorm | 5 | 2021 |
| Flood | 4 | 1984 |
| Biological | 2 | 2020 |
| Drought | 2 | 1980 |
| Fire | 1 | 2001 |
| Other | 1 | 2000 |
Most recent declarations
- EM-3573 2021 · Hurricane · Remnants Of Hurricane Ida
- DR-4614 2021 · Hurricane · Remnants Of Hurricane Ida
- DR-4597 2021 · Snowstorm · Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm
- DR-4574 2020 · Hurricane · Tropical Storm Isaias
- DR-4488 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
- EM-3451 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
- DR-4368 2018 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm
- DR-4264 2016 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm
- EM-3354 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
- DR-4086 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
Not counted above: 2 statewide declarations, which covered every county in New Jersey. 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 | 303 | 2 | 10 | $1.2M |
| Winter Weather | 206 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Strong Wind | 90 | 1 | 0 | $1.5M |
| Flood | 85 | 2 | 0 | $256.7M |
| Winter Storm | 66 | 0 | 0 | $75K |
| Flash Flood | 63 | 0 | 6 | $53.2M |
| Hail | 61 | 0 | 0 | $5K |
| Heat | 54 | 0 | 19 | $0 |
| Heavy Rain | 51 | 0 | 0 | $100K |
| Lightning | 49 | 0 | 5 | $1.0M |
| Drought | 41 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Heavy Snow | 39 | 0 | 0 | $2.0M |
| High Wind | 37 | 3 | 6 | $4.5M |
| Cold/Wind Chill | 31 | 3 | 0 | $0 |
| Dense Fog | 30 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Excessive Heat | 22 | 0 | 1 | $0 |
| Wildfire | 8 | 0 | 1 | $0 |
| Sleet | 5 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Blizzard | 3 | 0 | 0 | $1.5M |
| Funnel Cloud | 3 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Ice Storm | 3 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Tropical Storm | 3 | 0 | 0 | $500K |
| Extreme Cold/Wind Chill | 2 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Frost/Freeze | 2 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Tornado | 2 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Freezing Fog | 1 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
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.
Year by year
NOAA storm event records in Morris County each year. The busiest year was 2019, with 62 records.
Show the numbers for every year
| Year | Records | Deaths | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 42 | 1 | $2.7M |
| 1997 | 44 | 1 | $1K |
| 1998 | 45 | 0 | $0 |
| 1999 | 40 | 0 | $33.0M |
| 2000 | 39 | 0 | $12.0M |
| 2001 | 42 | 0 | $0 |
| 2002 | 50 | 0 | $0 |
| 2003 | 43 | 0 | $2.4M |
| 2004 | 33 | 1 | $66K |
| 2005 | 45 | 3 | $2.4M |
| 2006 | 32 | 0 | $1.0M |
| 2007 | 51 | 0 | $26.2M |
| 2008 | 49 | 0 | $1.2M |
| 2009 | 38 | 0 | $806K |
| 2010 | 37 | 0 | $15.1M |
| 2011 | 54 | 1 | $212.4M |
| 2012 | 40 | 3 | $125K |
| 2013 | 58 | 0 | $82K |
| 2014 | 40 | 0 | $2.5M |
| 2015 | 33 | 0 | $11K |
| 2016 | 33 | 0 | $10 |
| 2017 | 23 | 0 | $10 |
| 2018 | 21 | 1 | $0 |
| 2019 | 62 | 0 | $0 |
| 2020 | 58 | 0 | $40K |
| 2021 | 51 | 0 | $10.0M |
| 2022 | 24 | 0 | $1K |
| 2023 | 52 | 0 | $100K |
| 2024 | 38 | 0 | $0 |
| 2025 | 29 | 0 | $5K |
| 2026 | 14 | 0 | $0 |
Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.
Notable events
Costliest records
- Flood · Aug 28, 2011$200.0MNOAA name: Morris County · 1 death · NOAA record 344872
- Flash Flood · Sep 16, 1999$30.0MNOAA name: Morris County · 6 injuries · NOAA record 5722763
- Flood · Apr 15, 2007$26.0MNOAA name: Morris County · NOAA record 26676
- Flood · Mar 13, 2010$15.0MNOAA name: Morris County · NOAA record 222421
- Flash Flood · Aug 12, 2000$12.0MNOAA name: Morris County · NOAA record 5172752
Deadliest records
- High Wind · Oct 29, 20123 deathsNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $50K damage · 2 injuries · NOAA record 417003
- Cold/Wind Chill · Jan 28, 20052 deathsNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5434636
- Flood · Jan 27, 19961 deathNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5543274
- Thunderstorm Wind · Aug 16, 19971 deathNOAA name: Morris County · NOAA record 5621637
- Cold/Wind Chill · Jan 25, 20041 deathNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5385299
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 $199.7M on 9,445 claims in Morris County from 1978 to 2024.
| Year | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 2,971 | $119.5M |
| 1984 | 1,094 | $11.8M |
| 2010 | 875 | $20.9M |
| 1999 | 791 | $10.0M |
| 2007 | 639 | $12.5M |
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 Morris 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 | 3 NCEI events over 31 years (0.10/yr). 10 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Severe Thunderstorm | 3 | 413 NCEI events over 31 years (13.32/yr). 8 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Flood, External | 3 | 199 NCEI events over 31 years (6.42/yr). 4 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Snow Fall / Blizzard / Ice Storm | 3 | 323 NCEI events over 31 years (10.42/yr). 5 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Temperature Extremes | 3 | 111 NCEI events over 31 years (3.58/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Drought | 3 | 41 NCEI events over 31 years (1.32/yr). 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| High Wind (non-convective) | 3 | 127 NCEI events over 31 years (4.10/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Wild Fire | 2 | 8 NCEI events over 31 years (0.26/yr). 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county. |
| Epidemic | 2 | 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Tornado | 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 Morris 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 against a county and others against an NWS forecast zone, and publishes a code for both. Records are counted as Morris 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 1,260 records, 587 were filed against this county and 673 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 New Jersey'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.
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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.