Northampton County, Virginia: hazard history

FEMA declared 22 disasters that named Northampton County between 1972 and 2026.

Most recent declarations

• EM-3631 2026 · Winter Storm · Severe Winter Storm
• EM-3448 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-4512 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• DR-4411 2018 · Hurricane · Tropical Storm Michael
• EM-3403 2018 · Hurricane · Hurricane Florence
• EM-3359 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
• DR-4092 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
• EM-3329 2011 · Hurricane · Hurricane Irene
• DR-4024 2011 · Hurricane · Hurricane Irene
• DR-4042 2011 · Earthquake · Earthquake

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. 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 Northampton County each year. The busiest year was 2025, with 19 records.

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

Costliest records

1. High Wind · Sep 1, 2006$5.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5533281
2. Coastal Flood · Nov 12, 2009$1.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 203850
3. Thunderstorm Wind · Jul 24, 2014$750K
   NOAA name: Northampton County · 3 deaths · 31 injuries · NOAA record 537158
4. Coastal Flood · Oct 28, 2012$530K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 418270
5. Flood · Oct 8, 2016$500K
   NOAA name: Northampton County · NOAA record 664213

Deadliest records

1. Thunderstorm Wind · Jul 24, 20143 deaths
   NOAA name: Northampton County · $750K damage · 31 injuries · NOAA record 537158

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 $1.0M on 98 claims in Northampton County from 1978 to 2018.

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 Northampton 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 Northampton 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 244 records, 114 were filed against this county and 130 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: 4% of Virginia'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.