FEMA disaster declarations in Bergen County, and the floods since the last one
Bergen County has been named in 32 federal emergency and major disaster declarations since 1965. The most recent was for Ida, in September 2021. The floods did not stop there; the federal help did.
FEMA's records list 32 declarations that have covered Bergen County since 1965, 20 of them major disasters. The last was DR-4614, declared on 5 September 2021 for the remnants of Hurricane Ida. As of 2 November 2026 no declaration has covered the county since, and only two have covered any part of New Jersey: a July 2023 storm in Warren County and a wildfire in Ocean County in April 2025. Over the same period FEMA's flood insurance data record 410 claims in Bergen County, most of them from the December 2023 nor'easter, the January 2024 storms and a cloudburst over Englewood and Leonia in August 2024. For households, the difference matters: without a declaration there is no federal assistance programme to apply to, and a flood policy is the only cover for flood water.
The short version
- FEMA records 32 emergency and major disaster declarations covering Bergen County since 1965, 20 of them major disasters.
- The most recent is DR-4614 for the remnants of Hurricane Ida, declared on 5 September 2021.
- Since January 2022 only two declarations have covered any part of New Jersey, and neither included Bergen County.
- FEMA's flood insurance data record 410 Bergen County claims from 2022 to 2026, 109 of them from the December 2023 nor'easter.
- New Milford, Englewood and Westwood had the most claims in that period.
Every declaration that has covered Bergen County
The table lists every emergency (EM) and major disaster (DR) declaration in FEMA's OpenFEMA records with Bergen County as a designated area, newest first. A declaration covers a county as a whole, so the same list applies to every one of its 70 municipalities, from Mahwah to Edgewater; there is no separate declaration for a single borough. The last column shows whether FEMA's record marks the declaration as opening assistance to individual households, as opposed to help only for state and local governments. Flood and storm events dominate: Floyd in 1999, the April 2007 nor'easter, the March 2010 storms, Irene, Sandy and Ida all opened household assistance. Snowstorms, Tropical Storm Isaias in 2020 and the October 2011 storm were declared for public assistance only.
| Declared | Number | Event | Help for households |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 September 2021 | DR-4614 | Remnants of Hurricane Ida | Yes |
| 2 September 2021 | EM-3573 | Remnants of Hurricane Ida | No |
| 11 December 2020 | DR-4574 | Tropical Storm Isaias | No |
| 25 March 2020 | DR-4488 | COVID-19 pandemic | Yes |
| 13 March 2020 | EM-3451 | COVID-19 | No |
| 8 June 2018 | DR-4368 | Severe winter storm and snowstorm | No |
| 14 March 2016 | DR-4264 | Severe winter storm and snowstorm | No |
| 30 October 2012 | DR-4086 | Hurricane Sandy | Yes |
| 28 October 2012 | EM-3354 | Hurricane Sandy | No |
| 30 November 2011 | DR-4048 | Severe storm (October 2011) | No |
| 31 August 2011 | DR-4021 | Hurricane Irene | Yes |
| 27 August 2011 | EM-3332 | Hurricane Irene | No |
| 4 February 2011 | DR-1954 | Severe winter storm and snowstorm | No |
| 2 April 2010 | DR-1897 | Severe storms and flooding | Yes |
| 26 April 2007 | DR-1694 | Severe storms and inland and coastal flooding | Yes |
| 19 September 2005 | EM-3257 | Hurricane Katrina evacuation | No |
| 19 April 2005 | DR-1588 | Severe storms and flooding | Yes |
| 23 September 2003 | EM-3188 | Power outage | No |
| 20 March 2003 | EM-3181 | Snow | No |
| 19 September 2001 | EM-3169 | Fires and explosions | No |
| 1 November 2000 | EM-3156 | West Nile virus | No |
| 18 September 1999 | DR-1295 | Hurricane Floyd | Yes |
| 17 September 1999 | EM-3148 | Hurricane Floyd | No |
| 13 January 1996 | DR-1088 | Blizzard of 1996 | No |
| 17 March 1993 | EM-3106 | Severe blizzard | No |
| 18 December 1992 | DR-973 | Coastal storm, high tides, heavy rain and flooding | Yes |
| 12 April 1984 | DR-701 | Coastal storms and flooding | Yes |
| 19 October 1980 | EM-3083 | Water shortage | No |
| 23 July 1975 | DR-477 | Heavy rains, high winds, hail and tornadoes | Yes |
| 4 September 1971 | DR-310 | Heavy rains and flooding | Yes |
| 18 June 1968 | DR-245 | Heavy rains and flooding | Yes |
| 18 August 1965 | DR-205 | Water shortage | Yes |
What a declaration does
A federal declaration is not automatic. FEMA explains that the governor asks the President for one after state and local resources are judged insufficient, usually following a joint assessment of the damage. An emergency declaration funds immediate protective work, often before a storm arrives; Bergen's emergency declarations for Irene, Sandy and Ida each came a few days before the major disaster declaration that followed. A major disaster declaration can open public assistance for repairs to roads, sewers and public buildings, hazard mitigation grants for future protection, and, only when the declaration says so, assistance programmes that individual households can apply to. The deciding unit is the county: a borough that floods badly in a storm that is not declared for its county has no federal household programme to turn to, however severe its own damage was.
Five years without one
DR-4614 for Ida, declared on 5 September 2021, is the latest declaration in FEMA's records that names Bergen County. Searching every New Jersey declaration since January 2022 returns only two. DR-4725, declared on 11 August 2023 for the July 2023 storm and flooding, designated Warren County alone. FM-5581, a fire management declaration in April 2025 for the Jones Road Fire, covered Ocean County. Neither reached Bergen. None of the storms that produced Bergen flood claims in 2022, 2023, 2024 or 2025 appears in FEMA's declaration records for the county, including the December 2023 nor'easter, the January 2024 storms, the August 2024 storms and the July 2025 flooding that FEMA's claims file labels the NYC Metro Area Flooding. This page reflects FEMA's records as retrieved on 2 November 2026; a new declaration would change it.
The floods that came anyway
FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program data list 410 claims in Bergen County with a year of loss from 2022 to 2026: 87 in 2022, 146 in 2023, 140 in 2024, 23 in 2025 and 14 so far in 2026, a figure that will grow as recent claims are processed. A few storms account for most of them. Losses dated 17 to 19 December 2023, which FEMA labels the December Nor'easter, produced 109 claims, 37 of them in New Milford alone, where the Hackensack River runs below the Oradell Reservoir. Losses on 9 to 13 January 2024 produced 51. A storm on 6 to 8 August 2024 produced 47, concentrated in Englewood and Leonia rather than along a river. 18 July 2022 produced 31, 7 and 8 April 2022 produced 29, and the July 2025 flooding 19. Not one of them was declared for Bergen County.
| Town | Claims 2022–2026 | Heaviest year |
|---|---|---|
| New Milford | 72 | 2023 (38) |
| Englewood | 51 | 2024 (34) |
| Westwood | 29 | 2023 and 2024 (11 each) |
| Lodi | 25 | 2023 (14) |
| Rochelle Park | 20 | 2023 (15) |
| Little Ferry | 19 | 2023 (9) |
| Ridgefield | 16 | 2022 (9) |
| Hackensack | 14 | 2024 (8) |
| Hasbrouck Heights | 10 | 2024 (4) |
| Hillsdale | 9 | 2023 (6) |
| Teaneck | 9 | 2024 (3) |
| Edgewater | 8 | 2024 (4) |
| Tenafly | 8 | 2023 (4) |
| Leonia | 7 | 2024 (7) |
| Fort Lee | 7 | 2022 (4) |
| Ridgefield Park | 7 | 2024 (4) |
How we counted
Claims come from FEMA's redacted NFIP claims file, filtered to Bergen County and a year of loss of 2022 or later, retrieved on 2 November 2026. Most claims are filed under the town's own NFIP community. FEMA files 827 Bergen claims over the life of the programme under the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission instead; we assigned those to towns by the ZIP code reported on the claim. That matters most in Hasbrouck Heights, where 9 of the 10 claims since 2022 were filed under the Commission rather than the borough. Two claims had ZIP codes outside Bergen and are left out of the town table but counted in the county total. FEMA's file only includes insured losses, so it understates flooding in towns where few homes carry a policy, and FEMA redacts and lags recent records. The declarations table lists every record in FEMA's declaration summaries naming Bergen County.
What this means if you live here
Since Ida, flood insurance has been the only FEMA programme paying Bergen households for flood water, because there has been no declaration to open FEMA's household assistance. A standard homeowners policy excludes flood water that enters from outside; sewer backup is usually a separate endorsement. FEMA states that a new flood policy normally takes 30 days to take effect, so the time to buy is before the forecast. Check your address on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center, and look at your own town's flood page for its record. If water is in the building now, stop it at the source, photograph everything before it is moved, and call your insurer before any material is thrown away. Whether a particular loss is covered is decided by your insurer and your policy wording.
Common questions
When was the last FEMA disaster declaration for Bergen County?
DR-4614, declared on 5 September 2021 for the remnants of Hurricane Ida, with an incident period of 1 to 3 September 2021. As of FEMA's records on 2 November 2026, no emergency or major disaster declaration has covered Bergen County since.
Was the December 2023 nor'easter a declared disaster in Bergen County?
No. FEMA's declaration records show no declaration for Bergen County for that storm, although its flood insurance data attribute 109 Bergen claims to losses on 17 to 19 December 2023, more than any other event since Ida.
Does a disaster declaration cover my town?
Declarations are made for counties, so a declaration naming Bergen County applies to all 70 of its municipalities, and an undeclared storm leaves every town without a federal household programme. Whether a given declaration opens help for households depends on the programmes it includes.
Can I get FEMA help for flooding without a declaration?
Not through FEMA's household assistance programmes, which only open under a declaration that includes them. A National Flood Insurance Program policy pays claims whether or not a disaster is declared.
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