Analyze FEMA Flood Disaster Declarations

Flood declaration counts are useful only when their administrative meaning is preserved. A row represents a designated area under a FEMA declaration, not a sensor reading or a uniform measure of damage. The FEMA Disaster Scraper provides the identifiers and geography needed for defensible analysis.

Build a bounded historical extract

Filter on FEMA's exact incident label and select a period relevant to the question.

{"incidentTypes":["Flood"],"fromDate":"2015-01-01","toDate":"2025-12-31","maxResults":10000}

Profile results before charting them. Count unique disaster numbers, unique record IDs, states, and designated areas. A single disaster can create many rows, so a raw row count answers “area declarations,” not “number of disasters.” Report both when possible.

For geographic joins, keep state and county FIPS as text. Some designated areas are tribes, boroughs, parishes, independent cities, or statewide areas; do not force every label into a county table. Review unmatched records instead of silently dropping them.

Compare declaration dates with incident begin and end dates. The administrative decision can follow the event, and closeout may be much later. Assistance flags describe programs declared for a record, not paid amounts or household eligibility.

Add population, precipitation, or exposure data only after documenting geography and time alignment. Normalize area-row counts by population carefully and avoid presenting declarations as a complete catalog of all floods. The source contains federally declared events; smaller or undeclared floods are outside its scope.