Runnels County, Texas: hazard history

FEMA declared 13 disasters that named Runnels County between 1993 and 2021.

Most recent declarations

• DR-4586 2021 · Severe Ice Storm · Severe Winter Storms
• EM-3554 2021 · Severe Ice Storm · Severe Winter Storm
• DR-4485 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3458 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• EM-3284 2008 · Fire · Wildfires
• DR-1709 2007 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• DR-1624 2005 · Fire · Extreme Wildfire Threat
• DR-1606 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Rita
• EM-3261 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Rita
• EM-3216 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation

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.

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 Runnels County each year. The busiest year was 2024, with 33 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Cold/Wind Chill · Feb 14, 2021$16.8M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 942389
2. Thunderstorm Wind · May 24, 2002$15.0M
   NOAA name: Runnels County · NOAA record 5294588
3. Tornado · May 18, 2019$6.0M
   NOAA name: Runnels County · NOAA record 827234
4. Thunderstorm Wind · Jun 3, 1996$100K
   NOAA name: Runnels County · NOAA record 5552140
5. Thunderstorm Wind · Jun 3, 1996$100K
   NOAA name: Runnels County · NOAA record 5552141

Deadliest records

1. Winter Weather · Dec 26, 20171 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $7K damage · NOAA record 731305
2. Flash Flood · Sep 3, 20241 death
   NOAA name: Runnels County · NOAA record 1216288

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 $140K on 6 claims in Runnels County from 2006 to 2017.

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 Runnels 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 Runnels 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 488 records, 374 were filed against this county and 114 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.