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Columbiana County, Ohio: 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

Storm events recorded by NOAA
620
1996 to 2026
People killed and injured in those events
3 / 2
Deaths (direct and indirect) / injuries (direct)
Property damage NOAA recorded
$13.9M
Nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation
FEMA disaster declarations naming this county
18
1977 to 2020
NFIP flood insurance claims
116
1978 to 2022; a count, not a rate
NFIP payments on those claims
$918K
Nominal dollars

What this means

  • The event NOAA recorded most often here is Thunderstorm Wind, with 315 records.
  • The costliest single record is Flash Flood in 2004: $3.2M in property damage, in the dollars of that year.
  • The deadliest record is Winter Weather in 2014, with 3 deaths.
  • FEMA has declared 18 disasters that named this county, most often for severe storm.
  • The worst year for flood insurance claims was 2004, with 39 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 18 disasters that named Columbiana County between 1977 and 2020.

FEMA disaster declarations naming Columbiana County, by incident type
Incident typeDisastersMost recent
Severe Storm72012
Flood32018
Tornado32019
Biological22020
Snowstorm21978
Hurricane12005

Most recent declarations

  • DR-4507 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
  • EM-3457 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
  • DR-4447 2019 · Tornado · Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslide
  • DR-4360 2018 · Flood · Severe Storms, Landslides, And Mudslides
  • EM-3346 2012 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms
  • EM-3250 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation
  • DR-1580 2004 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, And Mudslides
  • DR-1556 2004 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Flooding
  • DR-1519 2004 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Flooding
  • DR-1484 2003 · Tornado · Tornadoes, Flooding, Severe Storms, And High Winds

Not counted above: 3 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Ohio. 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

NOAA storm event records for Columbiana County, 1996 to 2026, by event type
Event typeRecordsDeathsInjuriesProperty damage
Thunderstorm Wind31502$5.8M
Hail11600$0
Flash Flood4700$5.0M
Winter Weather3330$0
Flood3000$1.6M
Heavy Snow1500$0
Winter Storm1500$5K
High Wind1400$1.4M
Extreme Cold/Wind Chill800$0
Cold/Wind Chill600$0
Tornado600$85K
Ice Storm500$2K
Strong Wind400$12K
Drought200$0
Heavy Rain200$0
Funnel Cloud100$0
Lightning100$10K

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 Columbiana County each year. The busiest year was 2011, with 45 records.

Show the numbers for every year
NOAA storm event records in Columbiana County by year
YearRecordsDeathsProperty damage
1996160$517K
1997130$90K
1998340$130K
1999190$175K
2000160$171K
200170$5K
2002180$94K
2003320$477K
2004250$4.0M
2005160$102K
200690$55K
2007150$665K
2008170$1.5M
2009140$260K
2010140$355K
2011450$695K
2012240$344K
2013340$484K
2014233$176K
2015220$86K
2016110$22K
2017190$73K
2018200$5K
2019250$21K
2020310$283K
2021190$11K
2022170$88K
2023180$823K
2024210$2.1M
2025200$23K
202660$14K

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

Notable events

Costliest records

  1. Flash Flood · Aug 27, 2004$3.2M
    NOAA name: Columbiana County · NOAA record 5418418
  2. High Wind · Sep 14, 2008$1.0M
    NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 134269
  3. Thunderstorm Wind · Oct 6, 2024$1.0M
    NOAA name: Columbiana County · NOAA record 1221653
  4. Thunderstorm Wind · Oct 6, 2024$1.0M
    NOAA name: Columbiana County · NOAA record 1221654
  5. Thunderstorm Wind · Aug 9, 2007$500K
    NOAA name: Columbiana County · NOAA record 53908

Deadliest records

  1. Winter Weather · Nov 22, 20143 deaths
    NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 550201

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 $918K on 116 claims in Columbiana County from 1978 to 2022.

Years with the most NFIP claims in Columbiana County
YearClaimsPaid
200439$488K
198019$52K
199011$32K
20038$36K
19968$37K

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 Columbiana 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.

HazardProb.Basis, from the county record
Tornado36 NCEI events over 31 years (0.19/yr). 3 federal disaster declarations naming the county.
Severe Thunderstorm3432 NCEI events over 31 years (13.94/yr). 7 federal disaster declarations naming the county.
Flood, External379 NCEI events over 31 years (2.55/yr). 3 federal disaster declarations naming the county.
Snow Fall / Blizzard / Ice Storm368 NCEI events over 31 years (2.19/yr). 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county.
Hurricane / Tropical Storm2No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county.
Temperature Extremes214 NCEI events over 31 years (0.45/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
High Wind (non-convective)218 NCEI events over 31 years (0.58/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Epidemic22 federal disaster declarations naming the county.
Drought12 NCEI events over 31 years (0.06/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Wild Fire1No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Earthquake1No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Landslide1No 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 / Tsunami1No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Volcano1No 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 Inundation1No 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 Columbiana 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 Columbiana 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 620 records, 508 were filed against this county and 112 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.
  • 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.