Carbon County, Pennsylvania: hazard history

FEMA declared 18 disasters that named Carbon County between 1965 and 2020.

Most recent declarations

• EM-3441 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-4506 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3356 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
• EM-3340 2011 · Flood · Remnants Of Tropical Storm Lee
• DR-1649 2006 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Flooding, And Mudslides
• EM-3235 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Katrina
• DR-1557 2004 · Hurricane · Tropical Depression Ivan
• DR-1555 2004 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Flooding Associated With Tropical Depression Frances
• EM-3180 2003 · Severe Storm · Snow
• DR-1093 1996 · Flood · Severe Storms And Flooding

Not counted above: 6 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Pennsylvania. 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 Carbon County each year. The busiest year was 2008, with 62 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Winter Storm · Jan 5, 2005$5.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5434878
2. Flood · Jan 19, 1996$3.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5543249
3. Flash Flood · Jun 27, 2006$2.1M
   NOAA name: Carbon County · NOAA record 5518443
4. Blizzard · Jan 7, 1996$1.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5546169
5. Heavy Snow · Feb 16, 2003$1.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5347843

Deadliest records

1. Winter Weather · Feb 22, 20102 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 214672
2. Winter Weather · Jan 28, 20132 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 431724
3. Flash Flood · Sep 18, 20041 death
   NOAA name: Carbon County · NOAA record 5427570
4. Winter Storm · Feb 12, 20081 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $50K damage · NOAA record 82532
5. Excessive Heat · Jun 7, 20081 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 4 injuries · NOAA record 114270

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 $441K on 89 claims in Carbon County from 1983 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 Carbon 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 Carbon 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 1,061 records, 287 were filed against this county and 774 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: 4% of Pennsylvania'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.