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2025 Central Texas Floods Dashboard Methodology

 

Currently, this dashboard is tracking the following disaster for which Individual Assistance has been made available: 

 

DR-4879-TX: Severe Storms, Straight-Line Winds, and Flooding 


 

We use the FEMA Individuals and Households Program Valid Registrations Dataset, v2, available from OpenFEMA to build these dashboards. This dataset records application data from FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program (IHP) which provides financial and direct assistance to eligible households affected by a disaster with losses and serious needs that are not covered by insurance. Data is filtered by disaster code, and only otherwise minimally processed, as described below.

 

Raw data is available through OpenFEMA’s API at this link. 

 

The FEMA Individuals and Households Program may include multiple types of assistance including direct sheltering and housing assistance in the form of FEMA-provided hotel rooms (Transitional Sheltering Assistance) or housing units (Direct Temporary Housing), financial housing assistance in the form of Rental Assistance, Lodging Expense Reimbursement, and funds for Home Repair or Replacement, and Other Needs Assistance, which is financial assistance for other uninsured or under-insured disaster-causes expenses and serious needs, including emergency supplies, medical and dental needs, personal property, and transportation. Not all types of IHP assistance are authorized for every disaster.

 

Disaster survivors may be eligible for more than one type of IHP assistance. 

 

Note: While the IHP program includes both financial and direct assistance, the variable IHPeligible in the data set does not include applicants who were only eligible for direct housing assistance. 

 

Variables of Interest

 

The data used in the dashboard corresponds to the following data fields in the FEMA dataset. Definitions are from the OpenFEMA data fields section.

 

Used on the “Overview” Pane

 

  • Applications- A derived variable that is a count of every row in the dataset. FEMA records a row of data for each application. 

  • County -  The name of the affected U.S. county, parish, borough, independent city, or other political subdivision of a U.S. state, territory, or tribal government

  • damagedZipCode -  Damaged Zip Code - Damaged dwelling ZIP Code

  • Eligible for Any Assistance - IHPeligible. “Was the applicant eligible for the Individual and Housing Program (IHP)? NOTE: Applicants that received an HA and/or ONA award.” This includes only applicants who received financial assistance and does not include applicants who were only eligible for Transitional Sheltering Assistance or Direct Housing Assistance.

  • Referrals for Individual Assistance -IHPReferral - “IHP referral status NOTE: Does not include applicants referred to TSA only”

  • Referrals for Housing Assistance - HAReferral: “Was the applicant referred to the Housing Assistance program?”  

  • Eligible for Housing Assistance - HAeligible: “Was the applicant eligible for the Housing Assistance program? NOTE: Does not include applicants licensed into Direct Housing that did not receive an HA award”  

  • Completed Inspections - InspnReturned: “Has a FEMA issued inspection been performed to determine damage amount?”

  • Eligible for Other Needs Assistance - ONAeligible: Was the applicant eligible for the Other Needs Assistance (ONA) program?

 

Used on the “FEMA Response” Pane

 

  • Self-Assessed Housing Damage - selfAssessmentInformation. 1 - I had minor damage but I am able to live in my home.; 2 - I had damage to my home that requires a lot of repairs. I may not be able to live in my home.; 3 - I had damage to my home that requires major repairs. I am not able to live in my home.; 4 - My home was completely destroyed.; 5 - Unknown.; NR - No Response

  • Rental Assistance Eligible - RentalAssistanceEligible -  - Was the Applicant Eligible for Rental Assistance?

  • Repair Assistance Eligible - RepairAssistanceEligible - Was the Applicant Eligible for Repair Assistance?

  • Replacement Assistance Eligible - ReplacementAssistanceEligible - Was the Applicant Eligible for Replacement Assistance?

  • Housing Assistance Amount - HaAmount - Total amount awarded for Housing Assistance under IHP

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Used on the “Applicant Characteristics” Pane

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  • Applicant Age - applicantAge- The age range of the primary applicant. Values are <19, 19-34, 35-49, 50-64, 65+

  • Tenure - ownRent - Is the applicant the Owner or a Renter of the damaged dwelling? O - Owner; R - Renter; null - Unknown

  • Income - grossIncome - Self-reported gross income range in U.S. dollars. Values can be <$15,000, $15,000-$30,000, $30,001-$60,000, $60,001-$120,000, $120,001-$175,000, >$175,000

  • Flood Insurance - floodinsurance - Does the applicant have flood insurance?

  • Homeowners Insurance - HomeOwnersInsurance - Does the applicant have homeowner’s insurance

  • residenceType - Residence Type - Damaged Dwelling Residence Type (e.g., single-family home, apartment). A - Apartment; B - Boat; C - Condo; H - House/Duplex; M - Mobile Home; N - Non-Traditional; O - Other; TH - Townhouse; T - Travel Trailer; ALF - Assisted Living Facility; MIL - Military Housing; CD - College Dorm; CF - Correctional Facility

 

Methodology Notes to the “Overview” Pane

Rates table: The rates table calculates the percentage of applications that have been approved for financial assistance (using FEMA’s IHPeligible variable) using the total number of applications as a denominator. For housing assistance, the denominator is only applicants referred for housing assistance (HAReferral). 

County and Zip Code Maps: The application maps aggregate total applications by zip code and by county - darker colors show more applications. A small number of applicants list the incorrect county when applying by zip code; for the purposes of visual clarity, these applications are excluded from the maps, but they are included in all other calculations. 

 

Methodology Notes to the “FEMA Response” Pane

Inspection/Eligibility/Uninhabitable or Destroyed Maps and Table: This map and accompanying table show the percentage of applicants who have received an inspection, been approved for financial assistance, or have self-assessed as in an uninhabitable or destroyed home, depending on the parameter selected. 

  • The Inspection Rate is defined as the total number of inspections divided by the number of applications referred for individual assistance.

  • The eligibility rate is the total number of applications approved for financial assistance divided by the total number of applications. 

  • The Uninhabitable/Destroyed metric includes all applications where “SelfAssessmentInfo” is either a 3 or a 4. 

Housing Assistance: 

 

Applicants can receive more than one type of housing assistance. In this table, each type of assistance is counted once even if that applicant also received another type of assistance. The sum of all housing approvals is more than the number of applicants approved for assistance. 

 

Other Needs Assistance

Although many applicants who received Other Needs Assistance also received some form of Housing Assistance, the count and amount for Other Needs Assistance is separate from Housing Assistance. The count is applicants who received Other Needs Assistance (onaEligible); and the amount is the average of [onaAmount]. 

 

Methodology notes to the “Applicant Characteristics” Pane

Tenure

A small number of Unknown responses have been excluded for visual clarity. As of July 26, 2025, this represented 34/5806 (0.6%) responses. That data has been included in all other calculations. 


 

Timeline

The dashboards will be updated as FEMA makes data available, until the Individual Assistance application deadline, which is 60 days after the Individual Assistance declaration unless extended by FEMA. FEMA usually updates its data weekly on Saturdays, although there are sometimes delays. 

 

Citations: 

 

Cite FEMA data:

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), OpenFEMA Dataset: Individuals and Households Program - Valid Registrations - v1. Retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/openfema-data-page/individuals-and-households-program-valid-registrations-v2 on July 26, 2025. 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).

 

Any citation of the dashboard should include

- the authors: John Laycock & Maddie Sloan

- website name: Disaster Equity Data Portal

- Name of the dashboard being cited

- URL of the dashboard

- Date Retrieved. 

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Example: Laycock, John & Sloan, Maddie. Disaster Equity Data Portal. "Hill Country Floods Dashboard: Overview." Retrieved from https:/whatevertheURLendsupbeing.com,  8/15/2025

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