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 maps to a flood or tropical-cyclone hazard via our hazard map (Severe Storm maps to wind and is excluded). 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 maps to a flood or tropical-cyclone hazard via our hazard map (Severe Storm maps to wind and is excluded). 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 flood/tropical-cyclone; assistance approved
= (iaProgramDeclared OR ihProgramDeclared); take the 5 most recent.Worked example: Harris County has 25 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.
Independent professional (adjuster/restoration) review of the guidance built on these figures is pending and blocks release (D2). This record documents the data method only; it is not insurance, legal, or engineering advice.