OpenFEMA

The public’s resource for FEMA program data. Promoting a culture of Open Government and increasing transparency, participation, and collaboration among the Whole Community in support of FEMA's mission to help people before, during, and after disasters.
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This page has not been translated into Amharic. Visit the Amharic page for resources in that language.

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FEMA collects vast amounts of data on multiple aspects of emergency management — Disaster Information, Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, Hazard Mitigation, National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), and Grants. Data sets are available for download, along with an application programming interface (API) that provides data in an easily digestible, machine readable format.

By making FEMA’s data publicly available, OpenFEMA promotes government transparency and accountability, as well as enables collaboration with community partners—such as banks, financial companies, insurance companies, mortgage and real estate companies, private sector companies, universities/academia, journalists, non-profits, federal/state/local government agencies, and citizens/individuals—to improve outcomes in support of disaster survivors.

Goals

  1. Release high value data sets to the public in machine-readable formats and via an application programming interface (API) in accordance with Federal Open Data directives, executive orders, and legislation.
  2. Institutionalize the OpenFEMA data release process throughout FEMA.
  3. Engage with internal and external partners to leverage FEMA's data to improve outcomes in support of disaster survivors.

Resources

OpenFEMA provides data in machine-readable formats through API’s and downloadable content. Use of the API requires no registration, follows the same Privacy Policy as FEMA.gov, and adheres to open industry standards.

OpenFEMA services are offered subject to your acceptance of the Terms and Conditions contained herein.

The Changelog identifies API feature changes as well as new, updated, and deprecated datasets.

OpenFEMA Data Resources

Data Sets

A convenient table listing both API available datasets and FEMA Library datasets.

API Documentation

FEMA provides read-only API-based access to data sets. Learn how to use the API, including command examples.

OpenFEMA Learning Resources

Working With Large Datasets

Recommendations and techniques for working with OpenFEMA’s large data files.

Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to the most commonly asked questions regarding OpenFEMA data sets and API.

Machine Readability for Online Data

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Available from data.gov, this page provides a detailed explanation of machine readable data.

Developer Resources

Additional API data for software developers, including code examples.

Open Government

Overview of relevant "open" legislation, as well as resources to access FEMA and non-FEMA data.

FEMA's Presence on GitHub

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Includes OpenFEMA code samples and analysis examples as well as other useful FEMA assets.

Other Data Resources from FEMA (Non-OpenFEMA)

Data Visualization

Explore a series of interactive visualizations that allow you to explore FEMA’s data.

Other FEMA Data Sources

FEMA offers several ways to receive automatic updates on press releases, disaster declarations, blog posts and information from our partners.

Contact OpenFEMA

OpenFEMA is meant to be a self-service repository, providing data in machine-readable format. OpenFEMA cannot address requests for disaster assistance, please go to https://www.disasterassistance.gov.

OpenFEMA is managed by the FEMA Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO). Email our team at openfema@fema.dhs.gov with questions, comments, or data requests. Ideas, suggestions, and success stories are always welcome.

OpenFEMA now uses GovDelivery to inform users of system outages, dataset deprecations, new datasets, and new API features. Notifications will be infrequent - probably no more than one per month. FEMA respects your privacy and will never use your email for purposes other than OpenFEMA notifications. You may unsubscribe at any time. Subscribe to GovDelivery for OpenFEMA.

For inquiries not related to OpenFEMA, please see the listing of other FEMA Contacts.