Automated baseline from FEMA and NOAA data, release 2026-10.
Effingham County, IL
Risk-assessment baseline packet. County FIPS 17049. Release 2026-10, data as of 2026-09-30.
Summary
Plan status as of 2026-09-30: Expired on 2026-03-08. Plan: Effingham County 2021 Hazard Mitigation Plan (FEMA plan 106022), approved 2021-03-09.
Since the plan was approved on 2021-03-09: 1 new hazard declaration (1 incident): EM-3577-IL (Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, and Tornadoes).
NOAA Storm Events records since that date: 107 records (data through 2026-06-30).
Highest expected annual loss (FEMA National Risk Index, modeled total; see B1-a): Inland Flooding ($7,397,351 a year), Earthquake ($4,895,704) and Tornado ($2,323,751).
The packet's tables are organized by the items of FEMA's Local Mitigation Plan Review Tool, Element B (B1-a to B2-c); the summaries below follow the same order.
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, Earthquake and Tornado.
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.
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 11 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.
Hail: 3 in hail, 1971-05-06
Thunderstorm Wind: 70 kt (81 mph) estimated gust, Thunderstorm Wind, 2025-04-02; same speed and measurement basis also recorded on 2008-02-05, 2025-04-02
Tornado: F3 tornado, 1961-03-06, 21.2 mi path length (whole path, pre-1996), 33 yd wide, $250,000 property; crops not recorded (1961 dollars), 3 direct injuries
Federal declarations for this area: 7 declarations covering 4 separate hazard incidents counted in this packet; each with type, dates and county Public Assistance dollars.
New since the last plan (approved 2021-03-09): EM-3577-IL.
2 statewide declarations listed separately.
Hazards with no Storm Events record and no federal declaration are stated as such (9 of 18).
Storm Events history: 465 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.
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 (8 tracts; rated tracts only).
10 jurisdictions: plan clock, repeat-flood count, Public Assistance dollars and event records naming the place (starting figures from federal data).
County Public Assistance in B1-d also includes applicants filed under the county that are not jurisdictions in this plan (for example state agencies, special districts and nonprofits), so the jurisdiction rows add up to less.
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.
Storm Events damage since 2021-03-09: $190,000 in county-coded records (91 records); $0 reported for the zone (16 zone records). Data through 2026-06-30; nominal dollars.
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)
Population 34,654; building value $10,271,409,600 and agriculture value $251,182,807 (total, not at risk).
National Risk Index rating Relatively Low; social vulnerability Relatively Low; community resilience Very High.
Supports FEMA checklist item B2-c Repetitive loss properties
Repetitive-loss properties, FMA definition (44 CFR 77.2): 0 repetitive loss, 0 severe repetitive loss. NFIP insurance definition: 0 and 0.
Mitigated 0; insured 0; NFIP data as of 2026-08-02. Counts by occupancy group and for each jurisdiction are in the packet.
Releases
2026-10 (this release)
Each release is dated; this is release 2026-10. It was first published 2026-09-30; its files do not change. Later releases will be listed here with what changed between them. All releases.
Cite this
Hazard Plain (2026). Effingham County, IL: risk-assessment baseline packet, release 2026-10 (data as of 2026-09-30; County FIPS 17049). Automated baseline. https://hazardplain.org/il/17049/ Built from FEMA OpenFEMA, the FEMA National Risk Index and NOAA NCEI Storm Events; source versions in the packet's Sources list.