El Paso 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 174 records.
- The costliest single record is Hail in 2016: $300.0M in property damage, in the dollars of that year.
- The deadliest record is Flash Flood in 2021, with 2 deaths.
- FEMA has declared 16 disasters that named this county, most often for hurricane.
- The worst year for flood insurance claims was 2006, with 256 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 16 disasters that named El Paso County between 1974 and 2021.
| Incident type | Disasters | Most recent |
|---|---|---|
| Hurricane | 5 | 2008 |
| Fire | 3 | 2008 |
| Biological | 2 | 2020 |
| Severe Ice Storm | 2 | 2021 |
| Severe Storm | 2 | 2006 |
| Flood | 1 | 1974 |
| Other | 1 | 2003 |
Most recent declarations
- EM-3554 2021 · Severe Ice Storm · Severe Winter Storm
- DR-4586 2021 · Severe Ice Storm · Severe Winter Storms
- EM-3458 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
- DR-4485 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
- EM-3294 2008 · Hurricane · Hurricane Ike
- EM-3290 2008 · Hurricane · Hurricane Gustav
- EM-3284 2008 · Fire · Wildfires
- DR-1658 2006 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Flooding
- DR-1624 2005 · Fire · Extreme Wildfire Threat
- DR-1606 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Rita
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 | 174 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Flash Flood | 145 | 6 | 2 | $206.8M |
| Hail | 128 | 0 | 10 | $463.0M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 89 | 0 | 0 | $666K |
| High Wind | 66 | 0 | 1 | $491K |
| Dust Storm | 9 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Heavy Rain | 8 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Flood | 5 | 0 | 1 | $130K |
| Heavy Snow | 5 | 0 | 0 | $6K |
| Excessive Heat | 4 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Lightning | 1 | 0 | 0 | $50K |
| Strong Wind | 1 | 0 | 0 | $5K |
| Tornado | 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. 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.
Year by year
NOAA storm event records in El Paso County each year. The busiest year was 2025, with 69 records.
Show the numbers for every year
| Year | Records | Deaths | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 1 | 0 | $0 |
| 1997 | 5 | 0 | $150K |
| 1998 | 3 | 0 | $50K |
| 1999 | 6 | 0 | $50K |
| 2000 | 5 | 0 | $105K |
| 2001 | 2 | 0 | $30K |
| 2002 | 11 | 1 | $335K |
| 2003 | 1 | 0 | $1K |
| 2004 | 14 | 0 | $255K |
| 2005 | 12 | 0 | $36K |
| 2006 | 39 | 0 | $201.0M |
| 2007 | 30 | 0 | $12.2M |
| 2008 | 9 | 0 | $545K |
| 2009 | 20 | 0 | $150.3M |
| 2010 | 19 | 0 | $229K |
| 2011 | 12 | 0 | $7K |
| 2012 | 29 | 0 | $1K |
| 2013 | 35 | 0 | $4.1M |
| 2014 | 26 | 2 | $2K |
| 2015 | 32 | 0 | $12K |
| 2016 | 12 | 0 | $300.0M |
| 2017 | 25 | 0 | $175K |
| 2018 | 19 | 0 | $125K |
| 2019 | 19 | 0 | $80K |
| 2020 | 14 | 0 | $0 |
| 2021 | 47 | 3 | $656K |
| 2022 | 12 | 0 | $170K |
| 2023 | 42 | 0 | $50K |
| 2024 | 61 | 0 | $350K |
| 2025 | 69 | 0 | $25K |
| 2026 | 5 | 0 | $10K |
Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.
Notable events
Costliest records
- Hail · Nov 4, 2016$300.0MNOAA name: El Paso County · NOAA record 666452
- Flash Flood · Aug 1, 2006$180.0MNOAA name: El Paso County · NOAA record 5531708
- Hail · Sep 16, 2009$100.0MNOAA name: El Paso County · 10 injuries · NOAA record 197009
- Flash Flood · Aug 1, 2006$20.0MNOAA name: El Paso County · NOAA record 5531710
- Hail · Sep 16, 2009$20.0MNOAA name: El Paso County · NOAA record 197008
Deadliest records
- Flash Flood · Aug 12, 20212 deathsNOAA name: El Paso County · NOAA record 983514
- Flash Flood · Aug 2, 20021 deathNOAA name: El Paso County · $200K damage · NOAA record 5317858
- Flash Flood · Apr 19, 20141 deathNOAA name: El Paso County · NOAA record 509650
- Flash Flood · Sep 22, 20141 deathNOAA name: El Paso County · NOAA record 542913
- Flash Flood · Jun 28, 20211 deathNOAA name: El Paso County · $500K damage · NOAA record 968961
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 $6.0M on 764 claims in El Paso County from 1978 to 2024.
| Year | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 256 | $1.7M |
| 2014 | 75 | $884K |
| 2008 | 47 | $121K |
| 2021 | 45 | $2.3M |
| 2013 | 36 | $86K |
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 El Paso 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 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. 5 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Severe Thunderstorm | 3 | 218 NCEI events over 31 years (7.03/yr). 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Flood, External | 3 | 158 NCEI events over 31 years (5.10/yr). 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county. |
| Drought | 3 | 174 NCEI events over 31 years (5.61/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Wild Fire | 3 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. 3 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| High Wind (non-convective) | 3 | 67 NCEI events over 31 years (2.16/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Snow Fall / Blizzard / Ice Storm | 2 | 5 NCEI events over 31 years (0.16/yr). 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Temperature Extremes | 2 | 4 NCEI events over 31 years (0.13/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Epidemic | 2 | 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Tornado | 1 | 1 NCEI event over 31 years (0.03/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named 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 El Paso 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 against a county and others against an NWS forecast zone, and publishes a code for both. Records are counted as El Paso 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 636 records, 377 were filed against this county and 259 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: 1% of Texas'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.
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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.