Val Verde County, Texas: hazard history

FEMA declared 17 disasters that named Val Verde County between 1993 and 2026.

Most recent declarations

• EM-3649 2026 · Flood · Flooding
• DR-4935 2026 · Flood · Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• 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
• DR-4416 2018 · Flood · Severe Storms And Flooding
• DR-1999 2011 · Fire · Wildfires
• DR-1931 2010 · Hurricane · Hurricane Alex
• EM-3284 2008 · Fire · Wildfires

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 Val Verde County each year. The busiest year was 2004, with 41 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Flash Flood · Aug 23, 1998$40.0M
   NOAA name: Val Verde County · 9 deaths · 150 injuries · NOAA record 5666648
2. Drought · Sep 1, 1996$12.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5564202
3. Drought · Oct 1, 1996$10.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5572510
4. Hail · Apr 11, 2020$10.0M
   NOAA name: Val Verde County · NOAA record 880883
5. Drought · Dec 1, 1996$8.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5581047

Deadliest records

1. Flash Flood · Aug 23, 19989 deaths
   NOAA name: Val Verde County · $40.0M damage · 150 injuries · NOAA record 5666648
2. Heat · May 5, 20101 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 234575
3. Heat · Jul 15, 20101 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 234601

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 $3.5M on 164 claims in Val Verde County from 1979 to 2022.

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 Val Verde 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 Val Verde 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 646 records, 468 were filed against this county and 178 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.