Cameron County, Texas: 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
What this means
- The event NOAA recorded most often here is Drought, with 251 records.
- The costliest single record is Tropical Storm in 2008: $420.0M in property damage, in the dollars of that year.
- The deadliest record is Rip Current in 2011, with 3 deaths.
- FEMA has declared 34 disasters that named this county, most often for hurricane.
- The worst year for flood insurance claims was 2008, with 1,599 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 34 disasters that named Cameron County between 1967 and 2025.
| Incident type | Disasters | Most recent |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | 16 | 2024 |
| Flood | 5 | 2025 |
| Severe Storm | 4 | 2015 |
| Biological | 2 | 2020 |
| Fire | 2 | 2008 |
| Freezing | 2 | 1989 |
| Severe Ice Storm | 2 | 2021 |
| Other | 1 | 2003 |
Most recent declarations
- DR-4871 2025 · Flood · Severe Storms And Flooding
- DR-4798 2024 · Hurricane · Hurricane Beryl
- DR-4586 2021 · Severe Ice Storm · Severe Winter Storms
- EM-3554 2021 · Severe Ice Storm · Severe Winter Storm
- EM-3540 2020 · Hurricane · Tropical Storms Marco And Laura
- EM-3530 2020 · Hurricane · Hurricane Hanna
- EM-3458 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
- DR-4485 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
- DR-4454 2019 · Flood · Severe Storms And Flooding
- DR-4377 2018 · Flood · Severe Storms And Flooding
Not counted above: 102 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Texas. 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
| Event type | Records | Deaths | Injuries | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drought | 251 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 138 | 0 | 3 | $11.2M |
| Heat | 107 | 2 | 0 | $0 |
| Flash Flood | 92 | 0 | 0 | $216.3M |
| Hail | 70 | 0 | 5 | $50.0M |
| Frost/Freeze | 54 | 0 | 0 | $33K |
| Flood | 49 | 0 | 0 | $6.1M |
| Heavy Rain | 40 | 0 | 0 | $50K |
| Tornado | 33 | 1 | 11 | $901K |
| Strong Wind | 26 | 0 | 1 | $200K |
| High Wind | 22 | 0 | 2 | $607K |
| Rip Current | 19 | 22 | 6 | $0 |
| Storm Surge/Tide | 13 | 0 | 0 | $7.5M |
| Cold/Wind Chill | 10 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Excessive Heat | 9 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Tropical Storm | 9 | 0 | 0 | $533.8M |
| Extreme Cold/Wind Chill | 8 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Coastal Flood | 7 | 0 | 0 | $10K |
| Ice Storm | 6 | 0 | 0 | $15K |
| Lightning | 6 | 0 | 0 | $7.0M |
| High Surf | 5 | 1 | 0 | $0 |
| Winter Weather | 5 | 0 | 0 | $50K |
| Funnel Cloud | 3 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Hurricane (Typhoon) | 1 | 0 | 2 | $367.5M |
| Waterspout | 1 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
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.
Year by year
NOAA storm event records in Cameron County each year. The busiest year was 2023, with 173 records.
Show the numbers for every year
| Year | Records | Deaths | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 12 | 0 | $0 |
| 1997 | 6 | 0 | $86K |
| 1998 | 9 | 0 | $101K |
| 1999 | 7 | 0 | $2K |
| 2000 | 16 | 0 | $5.0M |
| 2001 | 17 | 0 | $0 |
| 2002 | 30 | 0 | $10K |
| 2003 | 28 | 0 | $56.0M |
| 2004 | 6 | 0 | $2.1M |
| 2005 | 13 | 0 | $115K |
| 2006 | 7 | 0 | $65K |
| 2007 | 19 | 0 | $120K |
| 2008 | 40 | 3 | $792.9M |
| 2009 | 52 | 2 | $15K |
| 2010 | 31 | 4 | $17.5M |
| 2011 | 54 | 5 | $20K |
| 2012 | 65 | 0 | $99K |
| 2013 | 55 | 0 | $79K |
| 2014 | 23 | 2 | $16K |
| 2015 | 15 | 0 | $363K |
| 2016 | 18 | 2 | $32K |
| 2017 | 17 | 0 | $37K |
| 2018 | 17 | 0 | $61.2M |
| 2019 | 12 | 0 | $32.1M |
| 2020 | 37 | 0 | $122.2M |
| 2021 | 60 | 1 | $148K |
| 2022 | 25 | 2 | $23K |
| 2023 | 173 | 2 | $2.6M |
| 2024 | 52 | 1 | $3.1M |
| 2025 | 33 | 2 | $105.0M |
| 2026 | 35 | 0 | $500K |
Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.
Notable events
Costliest records
- Tropical Storm · Jul 23, 2008$420.0MNOAA name: CAMERON · NOAA record 129302
- Hurricane (Typhoon) · Jul 23, 2008$367.5MNOAA name: COASTAL CAMERON · 2 injuries · NOAA record 129249
- Flash Flood · Mar 27, 2025$105.0MNOAA name: CAMERON · NOAA record 1249939
- Tropical Storm · Jul 25, 2020$101.6MNOAA name: CAMERON · NOAA record 914160
- Hail · Apr 8, 2003$50.0MNOAA name: CAMERON · 5 injuries · NOAA record 5355923
Deadliest records
- Rip Current · Apr 27, 20113 deathsNOAA name: CAMERON · NOAA record 290116
- Rip Current · Jun 1, 20082 deathsNOAA name: COASTAL CAMERON · NOAA record 112400
- Rip Current · Jul 4, 20102 deathsNOAA name: COASTAL CAMERON · NOAA record 249339
- Rip Current · Jun 10, 20081 deathNOAA name: COASTAL CAMERON · NOAA record 112406
- Rip Current · May 6, 20091 deathNOAA name: COASTAL CAMERON · NOAA record 159549
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 $95.7M on 5,826 claims in Cameron County from 1978 to 2024.
| Year | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 1,599 | $22.7M |
| 1980 | 947 | $8.2M |
| 2019 | 700 | $36.8M |
| 1991 | 423 | $5.8M |
| 1984 | 299 | $620K |
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 Cameron 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.
| Hazard | Prob. | Basis, from the county record |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane / Tropical Storm | 3 | 23 NCEI events over 31 years (0.74/yr). 16 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Tornado | 3 | 33 NCEI events over 31 years (1.06/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Severe Thunderstorm | 3 | 214 NCEI events over 31 years (6.90/yr). 4 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Flood, External | 3 | 188 NCEI events over 31 years (6.06/yr). 5 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Temperature Extremes | 3 | 188 NCEI events over 31 years (6.06/yr). 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Drought | 3 | 251 NCEI events over 31 years (8.10/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| High Wind (non-convective) | 3 | 48 NCEI events over 31 years (1.55/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Snow Fall / Blizzard / Ice Storm | 2 | 11 NCEI events over 31 years (0.35/yr). 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Wild Fire | 2 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Epidemic | 2 | 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Earthquake | 1 | No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Landslide | 1 | No 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 / Tsunami | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Volcano | 1 | No 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 Inundation | 1 | No 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 Cameron 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 by county and others by forecast zone, and names both. Records are counted as Cameron County when their NOAA name is this county's name, alone or with a word like “Coastal” or “Inland” in front. The county codes NOAA also publishes have not been loaded for Texas yet; when they are, this page will count by code instead, and some counties' records will grow. NOAA names counted here: CAMERON, CAMERON ISLAND, COASTAL CAMERON. Zones named for something else, such as a mountain range or two counties at once, are left out: 1% of Texas's NOAA records.
- 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.