Schenectady County, New York: hazard history

FEMA declared 25 disasters that named Schenectady County between 1987 and 2021.

Most recent declarations

• EM-3565 2021 · Hurricane · Hurricane Henri
• DR-4480 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3434 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-4322 2017 · Snowstorm · Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm
• EM-3351 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
• EM-3341 2011 · Severe Storm · Remnants Of Tropical Storm Lee
• DR-4031 2011 · Severe Storm · Remnants Of Tropical Storm Lee
• DR-4020 2011 · Hurricane · Hurricane Irene
• DR-1827 2008 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storm
• EM-3299 2008 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storm

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 Schenectady County each year. The busiest year was 2019, with 87 records.

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

Costliest records

1. High Wind · Mar 6, 1997$4.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 1 injury · NOAA record 5592530
2. Flood · Jan 19, 1996$3.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5553419
3. Flood · Jan 19, 1996$3.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 1 death · NOAA record 5553420
4. Flash Flood · Jul 23, 2008$2.0M
   NOAA name: Schenectady County · NOAA record 127160
5. Flash Flood · Sep 16, 1999$920K
   NOAA name: Schenectady County · NOAA record 5718034

Deadliest records

1. Ice Storm · Dec 11, 20082 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 141840
2. Flood · Jan 19, 19961 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $3.0M damage · NOAA record 5553420

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 $8.0M on 347 claims in Schenectady County from 1978 to 2021.

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 Schenectady 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 Schenectady 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 1,109 records, 361 were filed against this county and 748 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.