Erie County, Pennsylvania: hazard history

FEMA declared 11 disasters that named Erie County between 1972 and 2020.

Most recent declarations

• DR-4506 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3441 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• 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-1093 1996 · Flood · Severe Storms And Flooding
• EM-3105 1993 · Snowstorm · Severe Snowfall & Winter Storm
• DR-737 1985 · Tornado · Severe Storms, High Winds & Tornadoes
• EM-3026 1977 · Snowstorm · Snowstorms

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 Erie County each year. The busiest year was 1996, with 66 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Lake-Effect Snow · Dec 24, 2017$15.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 730390
2. Winter Storm · Mar 7, 2008$12.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 89607
3. Lake-Effect Snow · Dec 24, 2017$10.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 730391
4. Lakeshore Flood · Oct 31, 2019$8.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 859902
5. Flash Flood · Jun 30, 2009$6.3M
   NOAA name: Erie County · NOAA record 185178

Deadliest records

1. Flash Flood · Nov 5, 20172 deaths
   NOAA name: Erie County · $270K damage · NOAA record 727471
2. Thunderstorm Wind · Jun 6, 20101 death
   NOAA name: Erie County · $150K damage · NOAA record 241741
3. Winter Storm · Dec 1, 20201 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $150K damage · NOAA record 930283

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 $6.0M on 524 claims in Erie 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 Erie 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 Erie 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 1,057 records, 510 were filed against this county and 547 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.