Lorain County, Ohio: hazard history

FEMA declared 19 disasters that named Lorain County between 1965 and 2020.

Most recent declarations

• DR-4507 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3457 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• 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
• EM-3187 2003 · Other · Power Outage
• DR-1444 2002 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Tornadoes
• DR-1065 1995 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Flooding

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.

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 Lorain County each year. The busiest year was 2011, with 51 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Flash Flood · May 12, 2014$25.0M
   NOAA name: Lorain County · NOAA record 510240
2. High Wind · Sep 14, 2008$15.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 1 death · 1 injury · NOAA record 135377
3. Flash Flood · May 21, 2004$12.4M
   NOAA name: Lorain County · NOAA record 5399400
4. Ice Storm · Jan 5, 2005$4.8M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5435181
5. Winter Storm · Dec 22, 2004$4.7M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5429342

Deadliest records

1. Flash Flood · Jul 16, 20052 deaths
   NOAA name: Lorain County · $1.2M damage · NOAA record 5466511
2. High Wind · Mar 9, 20021 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $250K damage · NOAA record 5284844
3. Flood · Jun 22, 20061 death
   NOAA name: Lorain County · $4.5M damage · NOAA record 5518747
4. High Wind · Sep 14, 20081 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $15.0M damage · 1 injury · NOAA record 135377
5. Extreme Cold/Wind Chill · Jan 30, 20191 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 804388

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 $7.1M on 535 claims in Lorain 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 Lorain 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 Lorain 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 761 records, 599 were filed against this county and 162 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.