Clarion County, Pennsylvania: hazard history

FEMA declared 14 disasters that named Clarion County between 1972 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-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
• DR-1485 2003 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• DR-1130 1996 · Flood · Severe Storms, Flooding, And Tornadoes
• DR-1093 1996 · Flood · Severe Storms And Flooding
• EM-3105 1993 · Snowstorm · Severe Snowfall & Winter Storm

Not counted above: 5 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 Clarion County each year. The busiest year was 2017, with 38 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Flash Flood · Jul 19, 1996$75.0M
   NOAA name: Clarion County · 1 death · 1 injury · NOAA record 5574552
2. Flood · Sep 17, 2004$2.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5422648
3. High Wind · Sep 14, 2008$750K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 134294
4. Flood · Jan 19, 1996$630K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5544528
5. High Wind · Feb 12, 2009$100K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 154024

Deadliest records

1. Winter Weather · Jan 7, 20152 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 556563
2. Flash Flood · Jul 19, 19961 death
   NOAA name: Clarion County · $75.0M damage · 1 injury · NOAA record 5574552

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 $2.9M on 192 claims in Clarion County from 1978 to 2023.

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 Clarion 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 Clarion 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 537 records, 383 were filed against this county and 154 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.