Benton County, Washington: hazard history

FEMA declared 20 disasters that named Benton County between 1964 and 2025.

Most recent declarations

• EM-3629 2025 · Flood · Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides
• DR-4481 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3427 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-4309 2017 · Flood · Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, Landslides, Mudslides
• FM-5142 2016 · Fire · South Ward Gap Fire
• FM-2827 2009 · Fire · Dry Creek Fire Complex
• DR-1817 2009 · Flood · Severe Winter Storm, Landslides, Mudslides, And Flooding
• DR-1825 2008 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storm And Record And Near Record Snow
• EM-3227 2005 · Coastal Storm · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation
• DR-1361 2001 · Earthquake · Earthquake

Not counted above: 49 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Washington. 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 Benton County each year. The busiest year was 2013, with 22 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Strong Wind · Apr 27, 2018$1.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 745734
2. High Wind · Dec 17, 2012$560K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 417992
3. High Wind · May 3, 2010$500K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 222131
4. Flood · Jan 8, 2009$453K
   NOAA name: Benton County · NOAA record 141623
5. High Wind · Feb 7, 2002$300K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5282327

Deadliest records

1. Excessive Heat · Jul 12, 20243 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 1206542
2. Excessive Heat · Jun 26, 20212 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 969166
3. Ice Storm · Jan 16, 19971 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 5 injuries · NOAA record 5600575
4. Freezing Fog · Dec 8, 20111 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 351088
5. Strong Wind · Jun 23, 20121 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 379745

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 $1.5M on 99 claims in Benton County 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 Benton 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 Benton 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 292 records, 76 were filed against this county and 216 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: 39% of Washington'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.