Cherokee County, Georgia: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Cherokee County, Georgia has a Relatively Moderate natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 85.3 out of 100, higher than about 85% of US counties, with tornadoes, inland (river and flash) flooding and hail scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $78 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 18 federal disaster declarations that included Cherokee County since 1977, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is EM-3657-GA (Hurricane Isaias, declared 9 October 2026). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 31 tornadoes touching Cherokee County from 1950 to 2025.
Live weather alerts for Georgia All official warnings Latest FEMA declarations
Population 266,412 Buildings worth $52 billion Area 439 sq mi Risk rank in Georgia 9 of 159 FIPS 13057
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tornado | Relatively High | 94.8 | $16 million | about once every 3.9 years | 29 |
| Inland flooding | Relatively Moderate | 88.5 | $46 million | about once every 1.2 years | 24 |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | 86.2 | $1.8 million | about 5.7 a year | 215 |
| Cold wave | Relatively Moderate | 85.5 | $7.2 million | about 1.4 a year | 26 |
| Lightning | Relatively High | 84.5 | $1.3 million | about 61 a year | 183,039 strikes |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | 83.0 | $32,848 | about once a year | — |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | 78.9 | $2.0 million | about once every 446 years | — |
| Ice storm | Relatively Moderate | 75.4 | $411,658 | about once every 1.2 years | 58 |
| Strong wind | Relatively Moderate | 74.1 | $1.5 million | about 2.8 a year | 108 |
| Heat wave | Relatively Low | 66.7 | $1.1 million | about 1.9 a year | 33 |
| Wildfire | Very Low | 58.8 | $107,684 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Hurricane | Very Low | 54.2 | $156,347 | about once every 35 years | 10 |
| Winter weather | Relatively Low | 47.9 | $82,714 | about 3.8 a year | 73 |
| Drought | No Rating | 0.0 | — | about 36 a year | 1,309 |
| Avalanche | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Coastal flooding | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Tsunami | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Volcanic activity | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
Score: FEMA's percentile among US counties that face the hazard (higher = more risk). Expected loss: FEMA's modelled average yearly loss to buildings, people (as a statistical value) and crops. How often: FEMA's annualised frequency of the hazard in the county; for some hazards it counts event-days, so it is a rough guide, not a forecast. "Not Applicable" means FEMA does not model that hazard here.
Federal disaster declarations 18
Most common: Hurricane 6, Severe Storm 4, Tropical Storm 2, Tornado 2.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 1 | Drought |
| 1990s | 5 | Tornado ×2, Severe Storm, Hurricane, Snowstorm |
| 2000s | 4 | Severe Storm ×2, Hurricane ×2 |
| 2010s | 4 | Hurricane ×2, Severe Ice Storm, Severe Storm |
| 2020s | 4 | Tropical Storm ×2, Winter Storm, Hurricane |
The last 10
Widest declarations that included Cherokee County
- Hurricane Helene (2024, EM-3616-GA): 159 Georgia counties designated.
- Hurricane Irma (2017, DR-4338-GA): 159 Georgia counties designated.
- Hurricane Irma (2017, EM-3387-GA): 159 Georgia counties designated.
Named storms in its declarations: Hurricane Isaias (2026), Hurricane Helene (2024), Tropical Storm Zeta (2021), Hurricane Irma (2017), Hurricane Katrina (2005), Hurricane Ivan (2004), Hurricane Opal (1995).
Not counted above: 2 COVID-19 ("Biological") declarations — in 2020 every US county was included. Georgia also had 6 statewide declarations with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 31
| Tornadoes touching the county | 31 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F4 ×2 |
| Peak month | April (10) |
| Deadliest | 27 Mar 1994, F3, 40 mi path, 9 killed, 70 injured |
| Longest path | 27 Mar 1994, F4, 49 mi path, 3 killed, 20 injured |
| Most recent | 20 May 2025, EF0, 2.1 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 12 / 187 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 7 | 13 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 6 | 4 |
Deaths and injuries are for each tornado's whole path, which can run beyond this county. F-scale ratings before February 2007, Enhanced Fujita (EF) after.
How Cherokee County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cherokee County (this page) | — | Relatively Moderate | 85.3 | Tornado |
| Pickens County | 25 km | Very Low | 34.8 | Landslide |
| Forsyth County | 32 km | Relatively Moderate | 86.1 | Tornado |
| Bartow County | 33 km | Relatively Low | 65.3 | Tornado |
| Cobb County | 35 km | Relatively High | 94.4 | Tornado |
| Dawson County | 36 km | Very Low | 21.9 | Lightning |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Georgia, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Very Low 10.6 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Relatively Moderate 45.5 |
| Community risk factor | 0.75 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $78 million |
FEMA scales expected losses up where social vulnerability is high (people who may find it harder to prepare, evacuate or recover) and down where community resilience is high. A factor above 1 raises the risk score. For social vulnerability a high rating is worse; for resilience a high rating is better.
Prepare for Cherokee County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Georgia · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Tornado: Is there a tornado warning now?
- Inland flooding: Flood safety: why shallow water kills · Floods recorded
- Hail: Weather alerts for Georgia
- Your property's flood zone: FEMA Flood Map Service Center ↗ — this page cannot tell you that.
- Official preparedness guidance: Ready.gov ↗ and your county emergency management office.
What this page shows, and what it misses
FEMA's National Risk Index rates a whole county against every other US county; it is a planning-level estimate for nationwide comparison, not a flood-zone map and not a substitute for a local risk assessment or the risk to one home. Declarations are presidential disaster, emergency and fire management declarations that named this county; state declarations and SBA or USDA designations are not included. Tornadoes are counted when the county is one of up to four listed on the track; 670 tornadoes that crossed a state line carry no county list in NOAA's file and are left out.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Risk Index Dataset: National Risk Index Counties - v1.20.0 (December 2025). Retrieved from https://services.arcgis.com/XG15cJAlne2vxtgt/ArcGIS/rest/services/National_Risk_Index_Counties/FeatureServer/0/query on November 2, 2026, 1:20 PM EST. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Risk Index dataset API or downloadable datasets 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).
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), OpenFEMA Dataset: Disaster Declarations Summaries - v2, retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/api/open/v2/DisasterDeclarationsSummaries on November 2, 2026, 1:21 PM EST. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's 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).
Tornado records: NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center, Severe Weather Database, tornadoes 1950–2025 (https://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/data/1950-2025_actual_tornadoes.csv, downloaded 2 November 2026). Public domain; not endorsed by NOAA. Compiled by Global Incident Tracker.
Questions about Cherokee County
What natural disasters is Cherokee County, Georgia most at risk from?
Cherokee County, Georgia has a Relatively Moderate natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 85.3 out of 100, higher than about 85% of US counties, with tornadoes, inland (river and flash) flooding and hail scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $78 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Cherokee County had?
OpenFEMA lists 18 federal disaster declarations that included Cherokee County since 1977, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is EM-3657-GA (Hurricane Isaias, declared 9 October 2026). Another 6 Georgia declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Cherokee County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 31 tornadoes touching Cherokee County from 1950 to 2025. The deadliest: 27 Mar 1994, F3, 40 mi path, 9 killed, 70 injured (deaths and injuries are for the whole path).
Is the National Risk Index a flood zone map?
No. The National Risk Index is a planning-level estimate for a whole county, built for nationwide comparison. It does not tell you the flood zone or the risk of a single property: for that, look up the address on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center (msc.fema.gov) and ask your local floodplain manager.