Federal Disaster Declarations by State: A Decade of FEMA Data

By StartBusinessByState·Publisher: Robert Smith·Research process

Editorial corrections verified September 15, 2026. Fixed edition: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries (v2), declarations dated January 1, 2016 through August 26, 2026 — one count per state per disaster number. Last updated October 6, 2026: added the FEMA wait-times section (OpenFEMA through October 2, 2026).

For storm-driven trades — tree services, contractors, roofers, restoration crews —
federal disaster declarations sketch where federal assistance was declared after
major events. They are not a direct measure of local storm-work demand, revenue, or
business risk. The table below counts every FEMA declaration for each state in this
fixed window: major disasters (DR), emergencies (EM), and
fire management declarations (FM), with each declaration counted once per state
no matter how many counties it covered.

The most weather-declared states in this edition: California (32), Alaska (23), Mississippi (23), Tennessee (23), Oklahoma (21). The least: District of Columbia (1), Nevada (3), Colorado (3), Wyoming (4), Utah (4).

Declaration counts are not the same as dollars that hit a state. For OpenFEMA Public Assistance obligations and Individual Assistance approved IHP amounts — including an ex-Biological hazard view — see FEMA disaster dollars by state (PA and IA).

Federal disaster declarations by state, 2016–2026 (through Aug 26)

*Weather-related excludes FEMA’s “Biological” incident type — chiefly the
2020 COVID-19 declarations, which reached every state and would otherwise blur the storm
geography. Where COVID would have been a state’s “most common incident,” we show
its most common non-Biological incident instead.

Where floods top the list, check the flood policies that renew right after the Dec. 11 deadline, when the National Flood Insurance Program’s authority is set to lapse unless Congress extends it.

How long does FEMA take to decide?

Added October 6, 2026 · OpenFEMA data through October 2, 2026 · Last updated October 6, 2026

79 dayswas the median wait from the start of a disaster to a federal major disaster declaration in 2026, the longest of any year since at least 2016. In 2016 it was 39.5 days. Denials are slower still: a median 146 days from request to turndown this year.

Most federal disaster aid for an event, from rebuilding grants for local governments to help for households, waits on a presidential declaration. For a small business, that wait decides when federal help reaches your customers and your town, and how long you have to carry the gap yourself.

• 48 major disasters have been declared in 2026. 17 of them came more than 100 days after the incident began. The longest: New Mexico’s severe storms and flooding started September 28, 2025. The disaster was declared June 30, 2026, 275 days later.
• Decisions arrive in batches. All 48 of this year’s major disasters were declared on just 10 dates. The biggest single day was September 1, with 11 declarations. This year’s 22 turndowns came on 6 dates.
• Turndowns now take months. The median turndown in 2026 came 146 days after the request, up from 66 days in 2025 and 44 in 2024. Requests from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island tied to Winter Storm Hernando (February 2026) were turned down on September 2, about five months after they were filed.

FEMA wait times by state, 2025–2026

Click a column header to sort. Covers major disaster declarations and turndowns dated January 1, 2025 through October 2, 2026. A dash means none in that period.

State	Major disasters declared	Median days to declaration	Longest wait (days)	Requests turned down	Median days to turndown
Arizona	1	231	231	3	163
New Mexico	2	152	275	0	—
Oregon	3	131	175	1	31
Alaska	6	130	233	2	66
Massachusetts	1	128	128	1	148
Minnesota	1	123	123	1	214
Washington	1	123	123	1	156
Montana	5	119	163	3	63
Idaho	2	112	112	1	42
Oklahoma	2	102	136	2	122
Michigan	2	98	116	3	124
Delaware	1	96	96	0	—
South Dakota	4	91	111	1	177
North Dakota	3	83	86	0	—
Nebraska	4	78	110	1	49
Kansas	7	75	155	1	78
South Carolina	2	70	76	0	—
North Carolina	1	67	67	0	—
Colorado	1	66	66	2	172
Hawaii	2	65	102	2	77
Indiana	2	64	114	0	—
Iowa	2	62	63	0	—
Missouri	9	59	68	1	21
Wisconsin	2	56	78	1	30
Ohio	1	53	53	1	548
Virginia	1	53	53	0	—
Arkansas	2	52	55	0	—
Texas	3	51	56	0	—
Mississippi	4	50	68	0	—
Tennessee	2	46	78	1	24
Kentucky	5	22	126	1	172
Louisiana	2	20	26	1	41
West Virginia	3	13	38	1	32
California	1	1	1	2	114
Alabama	0	—	—	0	—
Connecticut	0	—	—	0	—
District of Columbia	0	—	—	0	—
Florida	0	—	—	0	—
Georgia	0	—	—	1	80
Illinois	0	—	—	2	188
Maine	0	—	—	0	—
Maryland	0	—	—	1	133
Nevada	0	—	—	0	—
New Hampshire	0	—	—	0	—
New Jersey	0	—	—	1	148
New York	0	—	—	2	202
Pennsylvania	0	—	—	1	38
Rhode Island	0	—	—	1	147
Utah	0	—	—	0	—
Vermont	0	—	—	1	169
Wyoming	0	—	—	0	—

Download the wait-time data (CSV)

What a slow declaration means for your business

If your area is hit, plan as if federal help will take two to three months, because this year it usually has. Keep three things in mind:

• Cash first. Insurance claims, not FEMA, are your first money. File fast and document everything with photos and receipts. A cash cushion matters more when declarations are slow; see how much cash to hold before taking on a big contract.
• SBA disaster loans follow a declaration. Businesses can apply for SBA disaster loans once there is a qualifying presidential declaration or an SBA administrative declaration for the area. Our SBA loan statistics page covers how SBA lending is moving.
• Storm-work businesses. If you do cleanup, roofing or tree work, the timing of a declaration affects when public money flows to local governments for debris and repair. See where that money has gone on our disaster dollars by state page.

How we measured this. Approval wait = declarationDate minus incidentBeginDate for each major disaster (DR) in OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2, one row per disaster number. Denial wait = requestStatusDate minus declarationRequestDate for each turndown in OpenFEMA Declaration Denials v1. Years are the year of the decision. We exclude FEMA’s Biological incident type (the 2020 COVID-19 declarations). OpenFEMA does not publish request dates for approved declarations, so approval waits run from the start of the incident, not from the governor’s request. Some incidents last days or weeks, and states need time to assess damage before they ask. Tribal requests are counted in the state where the tribe is located. Dataset refresh dates: Disaster Declarations Summaries 2026-10-06, Declaration Denials 2026-10-05.

What a declaration means for a storm-work business

For a storm-work business, review tree-service insurance and crew coverage before accepting cleanup jobs. Commercial buyers may also ask for the certificates and endorsements explained in our contract insurance guide.

• Severe storms dominate the DR list. Of the weather-related major disasters in this window,
  severe storms are the most common incident type nationally, ahead of floods and hurricanes —
  events that often coincide with tree and debris work, without proving how much paid work followed.
• Some licensing has an emergency valve. Louisiana’s arborist law opens an
  emergency temporary license after a declaration:
  an out-of-state license or ISA certification plus insurance, applied for within 90 days.
• Some rules bite hardest exactly then.
  North Dakota and
  Wyoming require state-fund workers’ comp to be
  in place before employees begin working — including the seasonal and occasional help
  a storm cleanup runs on — and Washington’s
  workers’-comp reciprocity with Montana and Nevada excludes construction work outright.
• Fuel rules can loosen, too. Governors also use emergency orders to suspend fuel taxes or waive dyed-diesel rules; see our tracker of state fuel emergency orders.
• Chasing storms across state lines is still a licensing event. Every state guide in
  our arborist license index covers whether an out-of-state
  credential carries, and our landscaping and
  HVAC guides do the same for those trades.

Related research: flood claims paid to businesses — NFIP non-residential claims by state.

Frequently asked questions

Which state has the most federal disaster declarations?

Counting weather-related major disaster declarations from January 1, 2016 through August 26, 2026, California leads (32), followed by Alaska, Mississippi, and Tennessee (23 each). California also leads fire management declarations, with 110 over the period. Counts are unique declarations per state (county rows deduplicated), not a ranking of business opportunity.

What do the declaration types mean?

A major disaster declaration (DR) unlocks the broadest federal assistance after events like hurricanes, floods, and severe storms. An emergency declaration (EM) provides more limited, immediate assistance. A fire management declaration (FM) helps states fight specific wildfires. One declaration can cover many counties; we count each declaration once per state.

Why does the weather-related column matter?

Every state received a major disaster declaration for COVID-19 in 2020 (FEMA’s ‘Biological’ incident type). Including those makes every state look similar; excluding them shows the storm, flood, hurricane, and fire geography of federal DR assistance. That geography is a useful backdrop for storm-work trades — it is not proof of local demand, pricing, or that declaration volume equals business risk.

Do disaster declarations change licensing rules?

In some states, yes. Louisiana’s arborist law includes an emergency temporary license triggered by a declaration — an out-of-state license or ISA certification plus insurance, applied for within 90 days. Other states’ rules cut the opposite way: North Dakota and Wyoming both require state-fund workers’ compensation coverage to be in place before storm crews begin working, with no private-market alternative.

Is this page updated continuously?

No. This is a fixed edition through August 26, 2026 (OpenFEMA pull). Editorial review September 15, 2026. Extending the window would need a new pull, re-dedup, and review — declarations after the cutoff are intentionally excluded. The FEMA wait-times section, added October 6, 2026, uses a separate OpenFEMA pull through October 2, 2026.

How long does FEMA take to approve a major disaster declaration?

In 2026 so far, the median major disaster was declared 79 days after the incident began, up from 65 days in 2025 and 39.5 days in 2016 (OpenFEMA, through October 2, 2026). The longest wait this year was 275 days, for New Mexico.

How long does it take FEMA to deny a disaster request?

FEMA turned down 22 requests in 2026 through October 2. The median denial came 146 days after the governor or tribal leader asked, compared with 66 days in 2025 and 44 days in 2024.

Sources

• FEMA — OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries (v2), fixed pull through August 26, 2026 —
  dataset page and
  API documentation. FEMA and the federal
  government cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency’s website(s).
• Louisiana emergency temporary arborist license, North Dakota/Wyoming workers’ comp rules:
  see the sources tables on the linked state pages — each cites the issuing agency or statute.