Methodology: Recent water-related disaster declarations
Every figure carrying this label on a county page is computed exactly as described below, from public government data. Nothing is estimated or editorialized.
| What it measures | county-designated rows (fipsStateCode + fipsCountyCode naming the county, fipsCountyCode != '000') whose incidentType is IN the water-relevance mapping. Incident type water-relevance mapping (an exhaustive owner decision, not FEMA's own category): Flood IN — Direct flooding is residential water damage.; Dam/Levee Break IN — A dam or levee break is a direct uncontrolled-water event.; Hurricane IN — Hurricanes bring storm surge and rainfall-driven flooding.; Coastal Storm IN — Coastal storms bring surge and coastal flooding.; Severe Ice Storm IN — Ice and freeze events burst residential plumbing.; Winter Storm IN — Winter storms freeze and burst residential plumbing.; Freezing IN — Freezing events freeze and burst residential plumbing.; Snowstorm IN — Snowstorms are freeze events that can burst residential plumbing.; Severe Storm IN — Texas severe-storm declarations characteristically include flash flooding; FEMA's incident label does not separate flooding from wind/hail.. Excluded: Fire OUT — The incident label identifies fire, not a residential water mechanism.; Drought OUT — Drought is not a sudden residential water-damage incident.; Tornado OUT — The incident label identifies tornado damage, not flooding.; Biological OUT — Biological declarations include COVID-19 and do not describe residential water damage.; Other OUT — The generic label does not establish a residential water mechanism.; Human Cause OUT — The generic human-cause label does not establish a residential water mechanism. One row per distinct disasterNumber, ordered by declaration date then disasterNumber descending; the 5 most recent are DISPLAYED (LIMIT 5) while the record counts all that qualify. Assistance approved = (iaProgramDeclared OR ihProgramDeclared): FEMA renamed the Individual Assistance flag to ihProgramDeclared post-2018, so reading iaProgramDeclared alone understates approvals. The declaration type (declarationType) is preserved verbatim — a DR is a major disaster declaration, an EM is an emergency declaration; they are never merged. |
|---|---|
| Unit | — |
| Source dataset | FEMA — OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 |
| Data version / accessed | through 2026-07 (cube build 2026-07-21b, generated 2026-07-21) |
| Exact source fields | disasterNumber, declarationType, femaDeclarationString, incidentType, fipsStateCode, fipsCountyCode, incidentBeginDate, incidentEndDate, lastIAFilingDate, ihProgramDeclared, iaProgramDeclared |
| Formula | one row per (county, disasterNumber); most recent first; LIMIT 5 displayed |
| Predicates / filters | county-designated rows (fipsStateCode + fipsCountyCode naming the county, fipsCountyCode != '000') whose incidentType is IN the water-relevance mapping. Incident type water-relevance mapping (an exhaustive owner decision, not FEMA's own category): Flood IN — Direct flooding is residential water damage.; Dam/Levee Break IN — A dam or levee break is a direct uncontrolled-water event.; Hurricane IN — Hurricanes bring storm surge and rainfall-driven flooding.; Coastal Storm IN — Coastal storms bring surge and coastal flooding.; Severe Ice Storm IN — Ice and freeze events burst residential plumbing.; Winter Storm IN — Winter storms freeze and burst residential plumbing.; Freezing IN — Freezing events freeze and burst residential plumbing.; Snowstorm IN — Snowstorms are freeze events that can burst residential plumbing.; Severe Storm IN — Texas severe-storm declarations characteristically include flash flooding; FEMA's incident label does not separate flooding from wind/hail.. Excluded: Fire OUT — The incident label identifies fire, not a residential water mechanism.; Drought OUT — Drought is not a sudden residential water-damage incident.; Tornado OUT — The incident label identifies tornado damage, not flooding.; Biological OUT — Biological declarations include COVID-19 and do not describe residential water damage.; Other OUT — The generic label does not establish a residential water mechanism.; Human Cause OUT — The generic human-cause label does not establish a residential water mechanism. One row per distinct disasterNumber, ordered by declaration date then disasterNumber descending; the 5 most recent are DISPLAYED (LIMIT 5) while the record counts all that qualify. Assistance approved = (iaProgramDeclared OR ihProgramDeclared): FEMA renamed the Individual Assistance flag to ihProgramDeclared post-2018, so reading iaProgramDeclared alone understates approvals. The declaration type (declarationType) is preserved verbatim — a DR is a major disaster declaration, an EM is an emergency declaration; they are never merged. |
| Date semantics | declaration issuance date; incident period from incidentBegin/End |
| Window boundaries | not date-windowed — all water-relevant declarations naming the county on record; the 5 most recent are displayed |
| Rounding | none |
| Suppression rule | module hidden when the county has no water-relevant declaration |
| Minimum sample (min_n) | 1 |
| Geography | US county (FIPS) |
Internal build query
This query runs against our internal data cube (private cube_*/fct_* tables built from the public sources below). It is exact but not runnable by a reader — use the public reproduction recipe that follows.
SELECT declaration_date, incident_type, declaration_type,
(ia_program OR ih_program) AS household_assistance,
disaster_number, last_ia_filing_date
FROM cube_county_declaration
WHERE county_fips = :fips
ORDER BY declaration_date DESC, disaster_number DESC
LIMIT 5;Reproduce from the public source
This recomputes the figure from the raw public dataset. Public data is live and may run ahead of our snapshot (see the data version above); numbers can differ by rows added since our ingest vintage.
OpenFEMA DisasterDeclarationsSummaries v2 — fema.gov/api/open/v2:
$filter = state eq 'TX' and designatedArea eq '<County> (County)'
$select = disasterNumber,declarationType,incidentType,incidentBeginDate,
incidentEndDate,ihProgramDeclared,iaProgramDeclared,lastIAFilingDate
$orderby = disasterNumber desc
Keep rows whose incidentType is IN the published water-relevance mapping;
assistance approved
= (iaProgramDeclared OR ihProgramDeclared); take the 5 most recent.Worked example: Harris County has 35 water-relevant declarations on record; the module DISPLAYS the 5 most recent (LIMIT 5). For example DR-4798 (2024, Hurricane Beryl) shows Individual/Household Assistance approved because ihProgramDeclared is true even though iaProgramDeclared is false.
Change log
2026-07-21 (r3) — window boundaries corrected (no windowed metric reads "not windowed"); LIMIT/ordering/geography/status predicates documented; the query relabeled the internal build query and paired with a public raw-source reproduction recipe.
2026-07-21 — record published with source URL, exact fields, predicates, window boundaries, rounding, suppression, and a worked example. Prior records disclosed a formula only.
Corrections
Spotted an error? Corrections: support@countyguard.com. We publish the fix and note it in this change log.
Every figure in this record is computed from the public dataset named above and independently re-checked against it before publication. This record documents the data method only; it is not insurance, legal, or engineering advice.
Published by Eldhurst LLC, which is accountable for what this site publishes. Countyguard is not a licensed adjuster, contractor, engineer, or attorney. Corrections and questions: support@countyguard.com.