Is this real disaster data?

Yes — real federal declarations from FEMA's own OpenFEMA API.

No. The OpenFEMA API is fully key-less.

Does this cover global disasters?

No — it covers real US federal declarations only.

Yes — free, no download, in your browser.

What do DR, EM and FM mean?

They are declaration types: DR for a major disaster, EM for an emergency, and FM for fire management assistance.

Why can the same storm appear more than once?

The dataset includes county-level designations and can include separate declarations for different states, so one event can produce many entries.

Does a declaration mean everyone in the area gets aid?

No. A declaration makes federal assistance available, and which programs apply depends on the declaration and the designated areas.

FEMA Disaster Declarations Feed Screensaver

The FEMA Disaster Declarations Feed screensaver streams real US federal disaster declarations. It is free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.

How the FEMA Disaster Declarations Feed screensaver works

The saver reads real declarations from FEMA's own OpenFEMA API.

Each entry shows a real disaster title, state and incident type.

The pipeline refreshes on FEMA's own daily declaration schedule.

No key is required for this key-less public endpoint.

How a US disaster declaration works

Under the Stafford Act, the President can declare an emergency or a major disaster. Requests for a major disaster declaration come from the governor of the affected state, who certifies that state and local resources are insufficient to respond and recover; federally recognized tribal governments can also request a declaration directly. FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, publishes the results through OpenFEMA, its open data platform. The Disaster Declarations Summaries dataset covers all federally declared disasters, with official declarations from 1953 onward.

Each record carries the title of the incident, the state, an incident type such as hurricane, flood, severe storm or fire, and a declaration type code. DR marks a major disaster, EM an emergency declaration and FM a fire management assistance declaration. Disaster numbers follow ranges too: 1–1999 and 4000–4999 are major disasters, 2000–2999 and 5000–5999 are fire management, and 3000–3999 are emergencies.

A declaration makes federal assistance available; it is not a measure of how destructive an event was. Records are also kept per declared area, with county-level designations, so a single disaster can generate many rows across counties and states. Counts here therefore reflect administrative entries rather than separate calamities.

A worked example

A real fire, flood or storm declaration for a real US state scrolls past exactly as FEMA recorded it.

Settings & tips

Titles, states and incident types are real, unedited FEMA entries.
Accent recolours the ticker text.
OpenFEMA is FEMA's own real public disaster-data API.

Frequently asked questions

Is this real disaster data?: Yes — real federal declarations from FEMA's own OpenFEMA API.
Is a key needed?: No. The OpenFEMA API is fully key-less.
Does this cover global disasters?: No — it covers real US federal declarations only.
Is it free?: Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
What do DR, EM and FM mean?: They are declaration types: DR for a major disaster, EM for an emergency, and FM for fire management assistance.
Why can the same storm appear more than once?: The dataset includes county-level designations and can include separate declarations for different states, so one event can produce many entries.
Does a declaration mean everyone in the area gets aid?: No. A declaration makes federal assistance available, and which programs apply depends on the declaration and the designated areas.

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