FEMA disaster declarations

At a glance

Publisher

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

Jurisdiction

United States (federal)

Publisher updates

Refreshed by FEMA several times a day

SourceFinch checks

Daily by default

Records per run

25 in the latest run

Record key

id

Acquired from

Publisher's public API: https://www.fema.gov/api/open/v2/DisasterDeclarationsSummaries?$top=25&$orderby=declarationDate%20desc,id

Recipe

v1.0.0, approved October 3, 2026

Verified since

October 3, 2026

Last green run

October 3, 2026

What the data contains

Every presidential disaster declaration in the United States, from the OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries dataset (version 2). Each record is one designated area (usually a county, parish or tribal area) within one declaration, so a single storm can produce many records. Records include the FEMA declaration string (for example DR-4855-MO), declaration type (major disaster, emergency or fire management), declaration date, incident type and period, and whether Individual Assistance was declared. Each run reads the 25 most recently declared areas through the documented OpenFEMA API, so a monitor reports new declarations and areas added to them, plus later edits such as incident end dates. OpenFEMA's terms ask users to cite the dataset and to state that products using it are not endorsed by FEMA; that statement travels with every record as its attribution text.

Fields and types

Every record has these fields. The key field id identifies a record across runs, so changes are reported field by field.

Sample output

The first 5 of 25 records from SourceFinch's own run on October 3, 2026, exactly as delivered.

[
  {
    "id": "360c0b07-6903-4e4f-bbb4-2c4a5663fae9",
    "state": "HI",
    "title": "TROPICAL STORM NOLO",
    "incident_end": null,
    "incident_type": "Tropical Storm",
    "incident_begin": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
    "designated_area": "Honolulu (County)",
    "disaster_number": 3654,
    "declaration_date": "2026-09-25T00:00:00.000Z",
    "declaration_type": "EM",
    "fema_declaration": "EM-3654-HI",
    "individual_assistance": false
  },
  {
    "id": "62d050c8-7aca-4ec2-83db-ec37728a88b4",
    "state": "HI",
    "title": "TROPICAL STORM NOLO",
    "incident_end": null,
    "incident_type": "Tropical Storm",
    "incident_begin": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
    "designated_area": "Maui (County)",
    "disaster_number": 3654,
    "declaration_date": "2026-09-25T00:00:00.000Z",
    "declaration_type": "EM",
    "fema_declaration": "EM-3654-HI",
    "individual_assistance": false
  },
  {
    "id": "7b4da9d3-d2cf-4517-98ae-a32b05e81918",
    "state": "HI",
    "title": "TROPICAL STORM NOLO",
    "incident_end": null,
    "incident_type": "Tropical Storm",
    "incident_begin": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
    "designated_area": "Hawaii (County)",
    "disaster_number": 3654,
    "declaration_date": "2026-09-25T00:00:00.000Z",
    "declaration_type": "EM",
    "fema_declaration": "EM-3654-HI",
    "individual_assistance": false
  },
  {
    "id": "bfaeea64-7c24-42c0-8092-3ca34716681e",
    "state": "HI",
    "title": "TROPICAL STORM NOLO",
    "incident_end": null,
    "incident_type": "Tropical Storm",
    "incident_begin": "2026-09-23T00:00:00.000Z",
    "designated_area": "Kauai (County)",
    "disaster_number": 3654,
    "declaration_date": "2026-09-25T00:00:00.000Z",
    "declaration_type": "EM",
    "fema_declaration": "EM-3654-HI",
    "individual_assistance": false
  },
  {
    "id": "552f9be5-0f40-4266-aa6a-239a9044ba2b",
    "state": "AR",
    "title": "BUNKER FIRE",
    "incident_end": null,
    "incident_type": "Fire",
    "incident_begin": "2026-09-14T00:00:00.000Z",
    "designated_area": "Calhoun (County)",
    "disaster_number": 5676,
    "declaration_date": "2026-09-15T00:00:00.000Z",
    "declaration_type": "FM",
    "fema_declaration": "FM-5676-AR",
    "individual_assistance": false
  }
]

Evidence behind every value

• Each run keeps the publisher's exact response, hashed with SHA-256. This sample came from a response with hash 585819c0c7fbb9620f2b6c0e4f9f5db3ab3b6fcc6e3985765070993045802f8a.
• Every value records where it came from in that response: a JSON Pointer into the retained capture.
• Each run gets a signed manifest (Ed25519) timestamped by an RFC 3161 authority: this run's manifest hash is 735c8c6b4771ba72d44db5c33ac42c6840842f2db4a45942daec07793fe61363, timestamped October 3, 2026.
• The compliance state at capture is recorded with the evidence: robots.txt hash and verdict, AI-preference signals, crawler identity and the usage rights below.
• Download any run as an evidence bundle (WACZ) and check it offline, without trusting SourceFinch: sourcefinch verify-bundle run.wacz.

Terms posture and usage rights

OpenFEMA offers FEMA's public data through an API without a key. Its terms require citing the dataset and the access date, stating that the product uses the OpenFEMA API but is not endorsed by FEMA, not modifying the data while presenting it as FEMA's, not using FEMA or DHS logos, not attempting to re-identify individuals, and using the data for statistical research or as a reporting record rather than for decisions about individuals' rights or benefits.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), OpenFEMA Dataset: Disaster Declarations Summaries - v2. This product uses the FEMA OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

Usage rights travel with every record SourceFinch delivers (API, exports, webhooks and evidence bundles). They are our documented understanding of the publisher's stated terms, not legal advice.

Reliability

Runs, last 30 days

1

Green

100%

Failed

0

Median run time

0.9 s

Latest run

success, October 3, 2026

Measured on runs of this recipe version across SourceFinch, anonymized. This recipe is newly Verified; the numbers fill in as it runs daily.

Use it

Every surface creates the same monitor from this Verified recipe. Monitors keep record history, report field-level changes and deliver by webhook, export or email. You confirm you have the right to collect the source (rights: true).

{
  "name": "FEMA disaster declarations",
  "url": "https://www.fema.gov/api/open/v2/DisasterDeclarationsSummaries?$top=25&$orderby=declarationDate%20desc,id",
  "recipe": {
    "mode": "http",
    "format": "json",
    "items": "DisasterDeclarationsSummaries[*]",
    "fields": {
      "id": "id",
      "state": "state",
      "title": "declarationTitle",
      "incident_end": "incidentEndDate",
      "incident_type": "incidentType",
      "incident_begin": "incidentBeginDate",
      "designated_area": "designatedArea",
      "disaster_number": "disasterNumber",
      "declaration_date": "declarationDate",
      "declaration_type": "declarationType",
      "fema_declaration": "femaDeclarationString",
      "individual_assistance": "iaProgramDeclared"
    },
    "required": [
      "id",
      "fema_declaration",
      "declaration_date",
      "state"
    ]
  },
  "key_field": "id",
  "schedule": "daily",
  "rights": true
}

# the Verified entry (fields, recipe, sample, terms) as JSON
curl https://sourcefinch.com/v1/catalog/openfema-disaster-declarations -H "Authorization: Bearer $SOURCEFINCH_API_KEY"

# create the monitor from source.json (below)
curl -X POST https://sourcefinch.com/v1/sources \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SOURCEFINCH_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -d @source.json

# then run it now (later runs follow the schedule)
curl -X POST https://sourcefinch.com/v1/sources/$SOURCE_ID/runs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SOURCEFINCH_API_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)"

sourcefinch login
sourcefinch catalog get openfema-disaster-declarations --source-json > source.json
sourcefinch sources create --file source.json
sourcefinch runs create $SOURCE_ID --wait
sourcefinch records $SOURCE_ID

import { SourceFinch } from "@tsg/sourcefinch";

const sf = new SourceFinch({ apiKey: process.env.SOURCEFINCH_API_KEY });
const entry = await sf.catalog.get("openfema-disaster-declarations");
const source = await sf.sources.create({
  name: entry.name.slice(0, 100),
  url: entry.acquisition_path.endpoint,
  recipe: entry.recipe.definition,
  key_field: entry.recipe.key_field,
  schedule: entry.recipe.schedule,
  rights: true, // you confirm you have the right to collect this source
});
const run = await sf.runs.wait((await sf.runs.create(source.id)).id);
console.log(run.status);

claude mcp add --transport http sourcefinch https://sourcefinch.com/mcp

# then ask your agent:
"Use SourceFinch to monitor FEMA disaster declarations: get_catalog_source openfema-disaster-declarations,
then create_source with its create_source_args (dry run first), then run_source."

Pricing

Each check is one run, whatever the number of records, and failed runs are free. On its default daily schedule this source uses about 30 runs a month, which fits the Free plan's 300 runs. It uses HTTP acquisition, so no browser runs are needed. See plans.

Related sources

• FEMA hazard mitigation grant projects · Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)