Suffolk city, Virginia: hazard history

FEMA declared 19 disasters that named Suffolk city 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
• EM-3403 2018 · Hurricane · Hurricane Florence
• DR-4291 2016 · Hurricane · Hurricane Matthew
• EM-3359 2012 · Hurricane · Hurricane Sandy
• DR-4024 2011 · Hurricane · Hurricane Irene
• EM-3329 2011 · Hurricane · Hurricane Irene
• EM-3240 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation
• DR-1491 2003 · Hurricane · Hurricane Isabel

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 Suffolk city each year. The busiest year was 2009, with 29 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Hurricane (Typhoon) · Sep 18, 2003$31.0M
   NOAA name: SUFFOLK · NOAA record 5372176
2. Tornado · Apr 28, 2008$30.0M
   NOAA name: SUFFOLK (C) · 200 injuries · NOAA record 97519
3. Tornado · Aug 4, 2020$4.0M
   NOAA name: SUFFOLK (C) · NOAA record 913544
4. Hurricane (Typhoon) · Sep 15, 1999$2.5M
   NOAA name: SUFFOLK · NOAA record 5720003
5. Tropical Storm · Aug 27, 2011$1.0M
   NOAA name: SUFFOLK · NOAA record 344724

Deadliest records

1. Coastal Flood · Oct 8, 20161 death
   NOAA name: SUFFOLK · $10K damage · NOAA record 664042

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 $5.2M on 223 claims in Suffolk city from 1978 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 Suffolk city — 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 Suffolk city 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: SUFFOLK, SUFFOLK (C). 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.