Hale County, AL

Supports FEMA checklist item B1-a Hazard identification

14 of the 18 National Risk Index hazards apply here.

Not applicable to this county per NRI, with no federal declaration and no Storm Events record since 1996: avalanche, coastal flooding, tsunami and volcanic activity. That is the evidence for leaving them out of the plan.

Highest expected annual loss (NRI, modeled): Inland Flooding, Tornado and Lightning.

Not covered by NRI (local data needed): dam failure (incl. upstream dams); levee failure; flash flood as its own subtype; ice jams; debris flows; erosion (riverine and coastal); land subsidence and sinkholes; expansive soils.

The state hazard mitigation plan also lists hazards for this county; FEMA asks the plan to explain any hazard it leaves out.

Supports FEMA checklist item B1-b Hazard location

• Cold Wave, Drought, Hail, Heat Wave, Ice Storm, Lightning, Strong Wind and Winter Weather: affects the whole county; national data give no location within it.
• Earthquake, Hurricane, Landslide, Tornado and Wildfire vary within the county; the packet lists the highest-rated census tracts for each.
• Inland Flooding: the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) is the required location source for flooding. See the FEMA Flood Map Service Center (https://msc.fema.gov) for this county.

Supports FEMA checklist item B1-c Hazard extent

Storm Events records for 13 of the 20 NOAA event-type groups mapped to the 18 hazards, with the scale, observed range and worst recorded event for each; the others say which local data are needed.

Worst recorded tornado, hail and thunderstorm wind (the three event types on record since the 1950s; the packet has every group):

• Hail: 2.75 in hail, 2007-02-13; same size also recorded on 2003-05-02
• Thunderstorm Wind: 75 kt (86 mph) estimated gust, Thunderstorm Wind, 2004-04-10
• Tornado: F4 tornado, 1973-05-27, 26 mi path length (whole path, pre-1996), 800 yd wide, $25,000,000 property; crops not recorded (1973 dollars), 1 direct death, 72 direct injuries

Supports FEMA checklist item B1-d Previous occurrences

Federal declarations for this area: 23 declarations covering 19 separate hazard incidents counted in this packet; each with type, dates and county Public Assistance dollars.

Plan 112245 was approved by FEMA on 2026-09-02 but is not yet adopted here, so no since-plan counts are given.

1 statewide declaration listed separately.

Hazards with no Storm Events record and no federal declaration are stated as such (7 of 18).

Storm Events history: 331 records (notable ones in the PDF, all of them in the Excel file).

Supports FEMA checklist item B1-e Probability of future events

FEMA annualized frequency (modeled) for each hazard, with a descriptor from a scale defined in the packet.

• Highly likely: Hail, Lightning and Strong Wind
• Likely: Cold Wave, Drought, Heat Wave, Inland Flooding, Landslide, Tornado and Winter Weather
• Possible: Hurricane and Ice Storm

Historical frequency by intensity band (tornado, hail, wind): 9 bands from Storm Events.

Supports FEMA checklist item B1-f Hazards that vary across jurisdictions

Range of census tract risk scores within the area for 14 of the 18 hazards (7 tracts; rated tracts only).

5 jurisdictions: plan clock, repeat-flood count, Public Assistance dollars and event records naming the place (starting figures from federal data).

Supports FEMA checklist items B2-a and B2-b Vulnerability and potential impacts

The packet's table gives county-level starting figures; the plan describes impacts for each jurisdiction and its own assets.

Plan 112245 was approved by FEMA on 2026-09-02 but is not yet adopted here, so no since-plan counts are given.

Local data needed

To gather:

• Critical facilities and lifelines per hazard
• A problem statement per jurisdiction per hazard
• Changes in development in hazard-prone areas since the last approval, or a statement of none (E1-a)
• Future assets

Supports FEMA checklist item B2-a Vulnerability (county context)

Population 14,753; building value $2,725,412,019 and agriculture value $81,722,561 (total, not at risk).

National Risk Index rating Very Low; social vulnerability Very High; community resilience Relatively Low.

Supports FEMA checklist item B2-c Repetitive loss properties

Repetitive-loss properties, FMA definition (44 CFR 77.2): 1 repetitive loss, 0 severe repetitive loss. NFIP insurance definition: 15 and 0.

Mitigated 0; insured 2; NFIP data as of 2026-08-02. Counts by occupancy group and for each jurisdiction are in the packet.