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February 2008                                                                                              Volume 14 - Number 1

    

 

2007 Disaster Stats...

     

 

2007 Federal Disaster Declarations
By Daniel Colcher

In 2007 there were 63 major Federal disaster declarations within the United States.  Of the 63 disasters, there were 6 categories of disasters which spanned 32 States.  There were 48 due to severe storms, 40 of which included flooding, 20 included tornadoes, and 4 involved rock or mudslides.  Additionally, there were 11 major disasters caused by severe winter storms, one for Tropical Storm Erin, one as a result of flooding not included in severe storms, one due to a severe freeze, and one from wildfires in California.  Oklahoma had the most with a total of seven declared disasters followed by Nebraska and Missouri, both with four.

On top of the major disaster declarations, there were thirteen emergency declarations.  Most of the declared emergencies were due to snow or winter storms, with others consisting of Hurricane Dean, drought, bridge collapse and wildfires.  The emergency declarations were scattered across eleven states (and the Federated States of Micronesia) with both Oklahoma and Colorado having 2 in their state.

In the final category of federal disaster declarations of fire management assistance declarations, there were a total of 60 declarations.  Not surprisingly, the state with the most declarations at 17 is California due to the immense wildfires of 2007.  Besides California, 15 additional states received fire management assistance.

Source:
http://www.fema.gov/news/disasters.fema?year=2007