OpenFEMA Dataset: Disaster Declarations Summaries - V2 | FEMA

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Main Overview

FEMA Disaster Declarations Summary 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-	Major Disaster Declaration

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. The financial information is derived from NEMIS and not FEMA's official financial systems.

Due to differences in reporting periods, status of obligations, and how business rules are applied, this financial information may differ slightly from official publication on public websites such as usaspending.gov. This dataset is not intended to be used for any official federal financial reporting.

Data Source

The included datasets are provided in CSV, JSON and JSONA formats. The data contains the following data fields:

Name	Title	Type	Description
femaDeclarationString	FEMA Declaration String	string	Agency standard method for uniquely identifying Stafford Act declarations - Concatenation of declaration type, disaster number and state code. Ex: DR-4393-NC.
disasterNumber	Disaster Number	number	Sequentially assigned number used to designate an event or incident declared as a disaster.
state	State	string	The name or phrase describing the U.S. state, district, or territory.
declarationType	Declaration Type	string	Two character code that defines if this is a major disaster, fire management, or emergency declaration.
declarationDate	Declaration Date	date	Date the disaster was declared.
fyDeclared	FY Declared	number	Fiscal year in which the disaster was declared.
incidentType	Incident Type	string	Type of incident such as fire or flood. The incident type will affect the types of assistance available.
declarationTitle	Declaration Title	string	Title for the disaster.
ihProgramDeclared	IH Program Declared	boolean	Denotes whether the Individuals and Households program was declared for this disaster.
iaProgramDeclared	IA Program Declared	boolean	Denotes whether the Individual Assistance program was declared for this disaster.
paProgramDeclared	PA Program Declared	boolean	Denotes whether the Public Assistance program was declared for this disaster.
hmProgramDeclared	HM Program Declared	boolean	Denotes whether the Hazard Mitigation program was declared for this disaster.
incidentBeginDate	Incident Begin Date	date	Date the incident itself began.
incidentEndDate	Incident End Date	date	Date the incident itself ended.
disasterCloseoutDate	Disaster Closeout Date	date	Date all financial transactions for all programs are completed.
fipsStateCode	FIPS State Code	string	FIPS two-digit numeric code used to identify the United States, the District of Columbia, US territories, outlying areas of the US and freely associated states.
fipsCountyCode	FIPS County Code	string	FIPS three-digit numeric code used to identify counties and county equivalents in the United States, the District of Columbia, US territories, outlying areas of the US and freely associated states.
placeCode	Place Code	string	A unique code system FEMA uses internally to recognize locations that takes the numbers '99' + the 3-digit county FIPS code. There are some declared locations that don't have recognized FIPS county codes in which case we assigned a unique identifier.
designatedArea	Designated Area	string	The name or phrase describing the U.S. county that was included in the declaration.
declarationRequestNumber	Declaration Request Number	string	Unique ID assigned to request for a disaster declaration.
lastRefresh	Last Refresh	date	Date the record was last updated in the API data store.
hash	Hash	string	MD5 Hash of the fields and values of the record.
id	ID	string	Unique ID assigned to the record.

To learn about about the data fields, please visit the dataset's documentation on FEMA's website.

More Information

• Source: FEMA | OpenFEMA Dataset: Disaster Declarations Summaries - V2
• FEMA | OpenFEMA Homepage
• FEMA | OpenFEMA API Terms & Conditions
• Frequency: Daily
• Format: CSV, JSON, JSONA

Contact Details

• If you find any issues with or have enhancement ideas for this product, open up a GitHub issue and we will gladly take a look at it. Better yet, submit a pull request. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated ❤️.
• If you are looking for specific open datasets currently not available on ADX, please submit a request on our project board here.
• If you have questions about the source data, please contact FEMA News Desk at FEMA-News-Desk@dhs.gov.
• If you have any other questions or feedback, send us an email at data@rearc.io.

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