Erie County, New York: hazard history

FEMA declared 27 disasters that named Erie County between 1976 and 2022.

Most recent declarations

• DR-4694 2022 · Snowstorm · Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm
• EM-3590 2022 · Winter Storm · Severe Winter Storm
• EM-3589 2022 · Winter Storm · Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm
• EM-3434 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-4480 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• DR-4472 2019 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding
• DR-4204 2014 · Snowstorm · Severe Winter Storm, Snowstorm, And Flooding
• EM-3351 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
• DR-1857 2009 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Flooding
• DR-1665 2006 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Flooding

Not counted above: 9 statewide declarations, which covered every county in New York. 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 Erie County each year. The busiest year was 2020, with 91 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Lake-Effect Snow · Oct 12, 2006$130.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 1 death · NOAA record 1266
2. Heavy Snow · Nov 20, 2000$20.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5160616
3. Lake-Effect Snow · Oct 12, 2006$20.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 1270
4. Lake-Effect Snow · Nov 16, 2022$20.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 1066475
5. Flash Flood · Aug 9, 2009$15.0M
   NOAA name: Erie County · NOAA record 194532

Deadliest records

1. Blizzard · Dec 23, 202240 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $15.0M damage · NOAA record 1070868
2. Lake-Effect Snow · Nov 17, 20148 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $1.3M damage · NOAA record 550166
3. Lake-Effect Snow · Nov 19, 20143 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $1.3M damage · NOAA record 550174
4. Lake-Effect Snow · Nov 17, 20222 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $10.0M damage · NOAA record 1066486
5. Lake-Effect Snow · Oct 12, 20061 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $130.0M damage · NOAA record 1266

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 $12.3M on 2,493 claims in Erie County from 1978 to 2024.

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 Erie 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 Erie 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 1,235 records, 621 were filed against this county and 614 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: 0% of New York'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.