Hanover County, Virginia: hazard history

FEMA declared 22 disasters that named Hanover County between 1969 and 2026.

Most recent declarations

• EM-3631 2026 · Winter Storm · Severe Winter Storm
• DR-4644 2022 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm
• DR-4602 2021 · Severe Ice Storm · Severe Winter Storms
• DR-4512 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3448 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• EM-3403 2018 · Hurricane · Hurricane Florence
• EM-3359 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
• DR-4024 2011 · Hurricane · Hurricane Irene
• DR-1874 2009 · Snowstorm · Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm
• EM-3240 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation

Not counted above: 3 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Virginia. 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.

NOAA storm event records in Hanover County each year. The busiest year was 2025, with 42 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Flash Flood · Aug 30, 2004$2.0M
   NOAA name: HANOVER · 2 deaths · NOAA record 5421491
2. Tornado · Apr 1, 1998$800K
   NOAA name: HANOVER · 2 deaths · NOAA record 5649784
3. Tornado · Oct 27, 2010$500K
   NOAA name: HANOVER · NOAA record 266137
4. Thunderstorm Wind · Jun 29, 2012$200K
   NOAA name: HANOVER · NOAA record 395495
5. Tropical Storm · Aug 27, 2011$100K
   NOAA name: HANOVER · NOAA record 345127

Deadliest records

1. Tornado · Apr 1, 19982 deaths
   NOAA name: HANOVER · $800K damage · NOAA record 5649784
2. Flash Flood · Aug 30, 20042 deaths
   NOAA name: HANOVER · $2.0M damage · NOAA record 5421491

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 $535K on 35 claims in Hanover County from 1995 to 2024.

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 Hanover 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 by county and others by forecast zone, and names both. Records are counted as Hanover 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 Virginia yet; when they are, this page will count by code instead, and some counties' records will grow. NOAA names counted here: EASTERN HANOVER, HANOVER, WESTERN HANOVER. Zones named for something else, such as a mountain range or two counties at once, are left out: 2% of Virginia's NOAA records.
• Counts last rebuilt from the source records on Sep 15, 2026.