The States With the Most Federal Disaster Declarations
Oklahoma and Washington tied for the most federal disaster declarations, with 11 each, in the first ten months of 2026.
Last updated November 2026
Each rank is the count of distinct federal disaster declarations per state, including major disasters, emergencies, and fire management assistance grants, from 1 January through 9 November 2026. Data compiled 9 November 2026.
- Oklahoma and Washington tied for the most, 11 each; nearly all of those 22 declarations are wildfire grants (19 of 22).
- Oregon 9, Texas 8, Hawaii 7, then California, Nevada and Utah with 6 each.
- Ten states had no federal declaration at all in this period.
Full ranking by state
Federal disaster declarations by state, 1 January–9 November 2026. DR = major disaster, EM = emergency, FM = fire management assistance.
| Rank | State | Declarations | DR / EM / FM |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma | 11 | 1 / 0 / 10 |
| 1 | Washington | 11 | 1 / 1 / 9 |
| 3 | Oregon | 9 | 1 / 0 / 8 |
| 4 | Texas | 8 | 1 / 1 / 6 |
| 5 | Hawaii | 7 | 4 / 2 / 1 |
| 6 | California | 6 | 0 / 1 / 5 |
| 6 | Nevada | 6 | 0 / 1 / 5 |
| 6 | Utah | 6 | 1 / 0 / 5 |
| 9 | Montana | 5 | 4 / 0 / 1 |
| 10 | Colorado | 4 | 1 / 0 / 3 |
| 10 | Florida | 4 | 1 / 1 / 2 |
| 10 | Georgia | 4 | 0 / 2 / 2 |
| 10 | Mississippi | 4 | 3 / 1 / 0 |
| 10 | Nebraska | 4 | 2 / 0 / 2 |
| 10 | South Dakota | 4 | 3 / 0 / 1 |
| 16 | Alaska | 3 | 2 / 0 / 1 |
| 16 | Arkansas | 3 | 0 / 1 / 2 |
| 16 | Idaho | 3 | 2 / 0 / 1 |
| 16 | Indiana | 3 | 1 / 2 / 0 |
| 16 | Kansas | 3 | 3 / 0 / 0 |
| 16 | Kentucky | 3 | 2 / 1 / 0 |
| 16 | Louisiana | 3 | 2 / 1 / 0 |
| 16 | Missouri | 3 | 3 / 0 / 0 |
| 16 | New Mexico | 3 | 2 / 1 / 0 |
| 16 | West Virginia | 3 | 2 / 1 / 0 |
| 26 | South Carolina | 2 | 1 / 1 / 0 |
| 26 | Tennessee | 2 | 1 / 1 / 0 |
| 26 | Wisconsin | 2 | 2 / 0 / 0 |
| 29 | Alabama | 1 | 0 / 1 / 0 |
| 29 | Arizona | 1 | 1 / 0 / 0 |
| 29 | Delaware | 1 | 1 / 0 / 0 |
| 29 | Iowa | 1 | 1 / 0 / 0 |
| 29 | Maryland | 1 | 0 / 1 / 0 |
| 29 | Massachusetts | 1 | 1 / 0 / 0 |
| 29 | Michigan | 1 | 1 / 0 / 0 |
| 29 | New Hampshire | 1 | 1 / 0 / 0 |
| 29 | North Carolina | 1 | 0 / 1 / 0 |
| 29 | North Dakota | 1 | 1 / 0 / 0 |
| 29 | Ohio | 1 | 1 / 0 / 0 |
| 29 | Virginia | 1 | 0 / 1 / 0 |
| 41 | Connecticut | 0 | 0 / 0 / 0 |
| 41 | Illinois | 0 | 0 / 0 / 0 |
| 41 | Maine | 0 | 0 / 0 / 0 |
| 41 | Minnesota | 0 | 0 / 0 / 0 |
| 41 | New Jersey | 0 | 0 / 0 / 0 |
| 41 | New York | 0 | 0 / 0 / 0 |
| 41 | Pennsylvania | 0 | 0 / 0 / 0 |
| 41 | Rhode Island | 0 | 0 / 0 / 0 |
| 41 | Vermont | 0 | 0 / 0 / 0 |
| 41 | Wyoming | 0 | 0 / 0 / 0 |
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Download the full ranking (CSV)
Reporters and researchers are welcome to use this ranking and the CSV; please credit Disaster-Report.com and link to this page.
Method
Source. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), OpenFEMA API v2, dataset DisasterDeclarationsSummaries. Records were retrieved 9 November 2026.
Query. The API was queried with $filter=declarationDate ge '2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z', selecting disasterNumber, state, declarationDate, incidentType, declarationType, and declarationTitle, with results paged at 1,000 rows.
Fields used. disasterNumber, state (USPS code), declarationDate, declarationType (DR major disaster, EM emergency, FM fire management assistance), incidentType, and declarationTitle.
Reference period. Declarations dated 1 January 2026 through the retrieval date. The latest declaration date in the extract is 27 October 2026.
Formula. Count distinct pairs of disaster number and state for each state. Each pair is one declaration for that state. The total is the sum of major disaster (DR), emergency (EM), and fire management assistance (FM) rows after de-duplication.
De-duplication and coverage. The API returns repeat rows for a single disaster (for example one row per designated area). The analysis keeps one row per (disasterNumber, state) combination and drops U.S. territories. The ranking lists all 50 states. The District of Columbia appears in the extract but is excluded from the ranking.
Ranks and ties. States are sorted by declaration count, highest to lowest. Ranks use competition ranking (1, 1, 3). States with the same count share a rank. Among tied states, order follows alphabetical state name.
Limits.
- The measure counts federal declarations, not physical events. One event can produce more than one declaration, and a single hurricane can yield one declaration while a busy fire season yields many.
- Fire management assistance declarations (
FM) are included. They are federal declarations for fires threatening to become major disasters, so a high count partly reflects wildfire activity. - The period is incomplete: declarations after 9 November 2026 are not included, and the year to date does not yet include December.
- Declaration counts reflect state requests and federal decisions, not a direct measure of damage or human impact.