OpenFEMA Dataset: Disaster Declarations Summaries - v2

Disaster Declarations Summaries is a summarized dataset describing all federally declared disasters. This dataset lists all official FEMA Disaster Declarations, beginning with the first disaster declaration in 1953 and features all three disaster declaration types: major disaster, emergency, and fire management assistance. The dataset includes declared recovery programs and geographic areas (county not available before 1964; Fire Management records are considered partial due to historical nature of the dataset).

Please note the unique structure of the disaster sequencing (due to a numbering system that originated in the 1950's-1970's):

0001-1999 Major Disaster Declaration

2000-2999 Fire Management

3000-3999 Emergency Declaration (Special Emergency)

4000-4999 Major Disaster Declaration

5000-5999 Fire Management

This is raw, unedited data from FEMA's National Emergency Management Information System (NEMIS) and as such is subject to a small percentage of human error. The dataset is primarily composed of historical data that was manually entered into NEMIS after it launched in 1998.

Additionally, NEMIS utilizes census data from the United States Census Bureau in which Tribal Nations are listed as localities within a State. As such, disaster declarations for Tribal Nations are currently included in State data.

Citation: FEMA's citation requirements for datasets (API usage or file downloads) can be found on the OpenFEMA Terms and Conditions page, Citing Data section: https://www.fema.gov/about/openfema/terms-conditions.

For answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the OpenFEMA program, API, and publicly available datasets, please visit: https://www.fema.gov/about/openfema/faq.

If you have media inquiries about this dataset, please email the FEMA News Desk at FEMA-News-Desk@fema.dhs.gov or call (202) 646-3272. For inquiries about FEMA's data and Open Government program, please email the OpenFEMA team at OpenFEMA@fema.dhs.gov.

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