FEMA Disasters

FEMA OpenFEMA API

Federal disaster data since 1953. No authentication required.

Data Model

• DisasterDeclarationsSummaries — Every presidential disaster declaration with type, state, dates, and programs.
• FemaWebDisasterSummaries — Aggregated disaster stats including individual/public assistance totals.
• Web summaries — aggregated disaster summary data including total costs, affected populations, and program totals across disaster declarations.
• HousingAssistanceOwners — Individual homeowner assistance amounts by disaster and county.
• NfipClaims — National Flood Insurance Program claims with payment amounts.
• NationalRiskIndex — County-level risk scores for 18 natural hazards.

Query Syntax (OData)

• $filter — e.g. state eq 'California' and fyDeclared eq 2024
• $select — choose fields: $select=disasterNumber,state,declarationDate
• $top / $skip — pagination (default 1000, max 10000)
• $orderby — e.g. declarationDate desc
• $inlinecount=allpages — include total count in response

Gotchas

• Default page size is 1000 records; max 10000 per request.
• Date fields are ISO 8601 strings (e.g. "2024-01-15T00:00:00.000z").
• Disaster types: DR (Major Disaster), EM (Emergency), FM (Fire Management), FS (Fire Suppression).
• designatedArea can be "Statewide" or a specific county name.

Typical workflow

1. Search disaster declarations (filter by state, year, or incident type) to obtain disasterNumber.
2. Pull aggregated web disaster summaries when you need IA/PA totals and application counts.
3. Pull housing assistance by county when you need homeowner repair/replacement and rental amounts for a disaster.