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Louisa County, Virginia: 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

Storm events recorded by NOAA
455
1996 to 2026
People killed and injured in those events
1 / 1
Deaths (direct and indirect) / injuries (direct)
Property damage NOAA recorded
$2.0M
Nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation
FEMA disaster declarations naming this county
25
1969 to 2026
NFIP flood insurance claims
4
1992 to 2016; a count, not a rate
NFIP payments on those claims
$36K
Nominal dollars

What this means

  • The event NOAA recorded most often here is Thunderstorm Wind, with 189 records.
  • The costliest single record is Thunderstorm Wind in 2012: $350K in property damage, in the dollars of that year.
  • The deadliest record is Lightning in 2023, with 1 death.
  • FEMA has declared 25 disasters that named this county, most often for hurricane.
  • The worst year for flood insurance claims was 2016, with 1 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 25 disasters that named Louisa County between 1969 and 2026.

FEMA disaster declarations naming Louisa County, by incident type
Incident typeDisastersMost recent
Hurricane72018
Snowstorm62016
Severe Storm42022
Biological22020
Flood21972
Drought11977
Earthquake12011
Severe Ice Storm12021
Winter Storm12026

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
  • DR-4262 2016 · Snowstorm · Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm
  • EM-3359 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
  • DR-4072 2012 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Straight-line Winds
  • EM-3329 2011 · Hurricane · Hurricane Irene

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.

Storms recorded by NOAA, by type

NOAA storm event records for Louisa County, 1996 to 2026, by event type
Event typeRecordsDeathsInjuriesProperty damage
Thunderstorm Wind18900$1.2M
Winter Storm6900$70K
Winter Weather5400$0
Hail4300$23K
Heavy Rain3600$0
Flash Flood1500$0
Tornado900$536K
Flood800$0
Frost/Freeze700$0
Funnel Cloud500$0
Ice Storm400$125K
Excessive Heat300$0
High Wind300$55K
Strong Wind300$3K
Drought200$0
Heat200$0
Heavy Snow100$0
Lightning111$0
Tropical Storm100$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 Louisa County each year. The busiest year was 2021, with 37 records.

Show the numbers for every year
NOAA storm event records in Louisa County by year
YearRecordsDeathsProperty damage
1996190$79K
199750$1K
1998110$7K
1999140$18K
2000120$194K
200140$3K
200290$8K
2003170$4K
200460$23K
2005130$2K
2006100$22K
2007180$67K
2008220$48K
2009100$4K
2010320$30K
201170$180K
2012100$408K
2013100$29K
2014110$7K
2015100$6K
2016180$15K
2017140$23K
2018260$60K
2019270$250K
2020170$15K
2021370$329K
2022200$142K
2023121$9K
2024150$28K
2025150$10K
202640$10K

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

Notable events

Costliest records

  1. Thunderstorm Wind · Jun 29, 2012$350K
    NOAA name: LOUISA · NOAA record 395489
  2. Tornado · Apr 19, 2019$200K
    NOAA name: LOUISA · NOAA record 821997
  3. Tornado · Oct 13, 2011$175K
    NOAA name: LOUISA · NOAA record 351329
  4. Thunderstorm Wind · May 13, 2000$150K
    NOAA name: LOUISA · NOAA record 5148894
  5. Tornado · May 27, 2022$100K
    NOAA name: LOUISA · NOAA record 1031684

Deadliest records

  1. Lightning · Apr 6, 20231 death
    NOAA name: LOUISA · 1 injury · NOAA record 1128617

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 $36K on 4 claims in Louisa County from 1992 to 2016.

Years with the most NFIP claims in Louisa County
YearClaimsPaid
20161$0
20141$3K
20091$0
19921$33K

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 Louisa 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.

HazardProb.Basis, from the county record
Hurricane / Tropical Storm31 NCEI event over 31 years (0.03/yr). 7 federal disaster declarations naming the county.
Severe Thunderstorm3233 NCEI events over 31 years (7.52/yr). 4 federal disaster declarations naming the county.
Flood, External359 NCEI events over 31 years (1.90/yr). 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county.
Snow Fall / Blizzard / Ice Storm3128 NCEI events over 31 years (4.13/yr). 7 federal disaster declarations naming the county.
Tornado29 NCEI events over 31 years (0.29/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Temperature Extremes212 NCEI events over 31 years (0.39/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Drought22 NCEI events over 31 years (0.06/yr). 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county.
High Wind (non-convective)26 NCEI events over 31 years (0.19/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Earthquake21 federal disaster declaration naming the county.
Epidemic22 federal disaster declarations naming the county.
Wild Fire1No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Landslide1No 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 / Tsunami1No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Volcano1No 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 Inundation1No 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 Louisa 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 Louisa 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 LOUISA, LOUISA, WESTERN LOUISA. 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.

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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.