FEMA Disasters Scraper

FEMA Disaster Declarations & Emergency Data Scraper

Extract FEMA disaster declaration data directly from the official FEMA OpenFEMA API. This Actor pulls structured data on hurricanes, floods, fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, and all other federally declared disasters across every U.S. state and territory. Filter by state, incident type, declaration type, and date range to get exactly the disaster records you need -- no authentication required.

Whether you are building a climate risk model, tracking emergency management trends, or feeding disaster data into a RAG pipeline, this Actor delivers clean, structured JSON ready for immediate use.

Key Features

Feature	Details
Total Records	60,000+ disaster declarations dating back to 1953
Output Fields	17 structured fields per declaration
Filtering	State, incident type, declaration type, date range
Authentication	None required -- uses public FEMA API
Output Formats	JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML, RSS, XML
Pagination	Automatic -- handles multi-page API responses

What Data Can You Extract?

Field	Description
femaDeclarationString	Unique FEMA declaration identifier (e.g., DR-4673-FL)
disasterNumber	Numeric disaster number assigned by FEMA
state	Two-letter state or territory code
declarationType	DR (Major Disaster), EM (Emergency), or FM (Fire Management)
declarationDate	Date the disaster was officially declared
incidentType	Type of disaster (Hurricane, Flood, Fire, Tornado, etc.)
declarationTitle	Official title of the disaster declaration
fyDeclared	Fiscal year the disaster was declared
incidentBeginDate	Start date of the incident
incidentEndDate	End date of the incident
designatedArea	County or area covered by the declaration
ihProgramDeclared	Whether Individual & Households Program was authorized
iaProgramDeclared	Whether Individual Assistance was authorized
paProgramDeclared	Whether Public Assistance was authorized
hmProgramDeclared	Whether Hazard Mitigation was authorized
fipsStateCode	FIPS state code
fipsCountyCode	FIPS county code
disasterCloseoutDate	Date the disaster was officially closed out

How to Scrape FEMA Disaster Declarations

1. Navigate to the FEMA Disaster Declarations Scraper on Apify Store.
2. Click Start to open the Actor input form.
3. Optionally set a State (e.g., "Florida" or "TX") to filter by location.
4. Choose an Incident Type from the dropdown (Hurricane, Flood, Fire, etc.) or leave blank for all types.
5. Select a Declaration Type (Major Disaster, Emergency, or Fire Management) or leave blank for all.
6. Set a Start Date and End Date in YYYY-MM-DD format to narrow the time range.
7. Set Max Results to control how many records to extract (default: 100, max: 50,000).
8. Click Start and wait for the run to complete.
9. Download your data in JSON, CSV, Excel, or any other supported format from the Dataset tab.

Input Example

{
    "state": "Florida",
    "incidentType": "Hurricane",
    "declarationType": "DR",
    "startDate": "2020-01-01",
    "endDate": "2025-12-31",
    "maxResults": 500
}

Output Example

{
    "femaDeclarationString": "DR-4673-FL",
    "disasterNumber": 4673,
    "state": "FL",
    "declarationType": "DR",
    "declarationDate": "2022-09-29T00:00:00.000Z",
    "incidentType": "Hurricane",
    "declarationTitle": "HURRICANE IAN",
    "fyDeclared": 2022,
    "incidentBeginDate": "2022-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
    "incidentEndDate": "2022-11-04T00:00:00.000Z",
    "designatedArea": "Lee (County)",
    "ihProgramDeclared": true,
    "iaProgramDeclared": true,
    "paProgramDeclared": true,
    "hmProgramDeclared": true,
    "fipsStateCode": "12",
    "fipsCountyCode": "071",
    "disasterCloseoutDate": null
}

Pricing

Event	Cost
Actor start	$0.00005 per run
Per result	$0.002 per disaster declaration

Platform compute costs apply in addition to the above. A typical run extracting 1,000 declarations costs approximately $2.00 in result fees plus minimal compute.

Use Cases

• Climate risk analysis -- Track disaster frequency and severity by state over decades to model climate trends and insurance exposure.
• Emergency management research -- Analyze which FEMA programs (Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, Hazard Mitigation) are activated for different disaster types.
• Government grant tracking -- Identify counties with active disaster declarations to find FEMA-eligible grant and recovery funding opportunities.
• Supply chain risk assessment -- Monitor disaster declarations in regions where your suppliers or warehouses are located.
• Academic and journalism research -- Build datasets of historical disaster patterns for studies, reports, and investigative journalism.
• Real estate due diligence -- Evaluate disaster history for specific counties before property investment or development decisions.

Integrations

Connect this Actor with your existing tools and workflows:

• Google Sheets -- Export results directly to a spreadsheet for easy sharing and analysis.
• Slack -- Get notified when new disaster declarations match your filters.
• Zapier / Make / n8n -- Trigger downstream workflows automatically when new data is extracted.
• REST API -- Call this Actor programmatically from any application using the Apify API.
• Python / JavaScript clients -- Use the official Apify SDK to integrate into your codebase.

FAQ

Q: How current is the data? A: The Actor pulls directly from the official FEMA OpenFEMA API, which is updated continuously as new disaster declarations are issued. Data is as current as FEMA's own systems.

Q: Do I need a FEMA API key? A: No. The OpenFEMA API is publicly accessible and does not require authentication. This Actor handles all API interaction for you.

Q: Can I extract all historical declarations? A: Yes. FEMA's database contains declarations dating back to 1953. Set maxResults up to 50,000 and leave all filters blank to extract the full history.

Legal Disclaimer

This Actor accesses publicly available data from the FEMA OpenFEMA API, a U.S. government open data initiative. The data is in the public domain and free to use. This Actor does not bypass any authentication, access restrictions, or terms of service. Users are responsible for ensuring their use of the extracted data complies with applicable laws and regulations. For questions or support, open an issue on this Actor's page.