Richmond County, New York: hazard history

FEMA declared 25 disasters that named Richmond County between 1965 and 2021.

Most recent declarations

• DR-4615 2021 · Hurricane · Remnants Of Hurricane Ida
• EM-3572 2021 · Hurricane · Remnants Of Hurricane Ida
• EM-3565 2021 · Hurricane · Hurricane Henri
• DR-4567 2020 · Hurricane · Tropical Storm Isaias
• EM-3434 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-4480 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3351 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
• DR-4085 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
• DR-4020 2011 · Hurricane · Hurricane Irene
• EM-3328 2011 · Hurricane · Hurricane Irene

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 Richmond County each year. The busiest year was 1996, with 27 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Flash Flood · Sep 1, 2021$60.0M
   NOAA name: Richmond County · NOAA record 994925
2. Tropical Storm · Aug 4, 2020$3.8M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 920008
3. Thunderstorm Wind · Sep 16, 2010$1.7M
   NOAA name: Richmond County · NOAA record 262527
4. High Wind · Oct 29, 2012$1.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 1 death · NOAA record 413127
5. High Wind · Mar 13, 2010$100K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 222487

Deadliest records

1. Coastal Flood · Oct 29, 201223 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 420534
2. Excessive Heat · Jul 4, 20102 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 258273
3. High Wind · Feb 12, 20091 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 1 injury · NOAA record 154193
4. High Wind · Oct 29, 20121 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $1.0M damage · NOAA record 413127
5. Excessive Heat · Jul 7, 20131 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 458780

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 $278.4M on 19,441 claims in Richmond 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 Richmond 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 Richmond 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 336 records, 188 were filed against this county and 148 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.