Openfema

mcp-openfema

OpenFEMA MCP — US Federal Emergency Management Agency open data.

Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1867+ live data sources. This is an independent, unofficial integration — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or published by the upstream provider.

Tools

Tool	Description
disaster_declarations	Look up and COUNT US federal disaster declarations (FEMA DisasterDeclarationsSummaries). Filters: state (2-letter), incidentType (e.g. 'Fire', 'Flood', 'Hurricane', 'Severe Storm'), declarationType ('DR' major disaster, 'EM' emergency, 'FM' fire management), year (fyDeclared, the federal FISCAL year), and since/until for a real calendar date range — use since/until for questions like 'in the past year', which a fiscal year does not answer. Counts are DISTINCT DISASTERS by default, not table rows: FEMA publishes one row per disaster per designated county, so Hurricane Harvey is ~60 rows for Texas but one declaration. Pass designatedArea or grain:'area' for county-level rows. Returns the most recent first. The response echoes filters_applied plus a note: declarationType/incidentType/state/designatedArea each narrow the total to a SUBSET (e.g. declarationType:'DR' excludes 'EM' and 'FM') — for an across-all-types/all-states total, call again WITHOUT that filter rather than treating one filtered call's total as the grand total; for a true breakdown, call once per value and sum the totals yourself.
query_dataset	Generic OData query against any OpenFEMA dataset. Specify the entity name (and optionally version; defaults to the verified current version) plus OData params: filter, select, orderby, top, skip. Use list_datasets to see available entities/versions and the filter syntax. Returns { metadata, records }.
list_datasets	List the OpenFEMA datasets this pack knows about, with their entity name, current version, and a description. Also documents the OData filter syntax and response shape. Call this first to discover what query_dataset can target.

Quick Start

Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openfema": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/openfema/mcp"
    }
  }
}

What this endpoint actually serves

tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/openfema/mcp returns the tools in the table above plus the shared Pipeworx meta-tools — ask_pipeworx, discover_tools, search_within, remember/recall and the rest of the gateway-wide set. So the tool count you see is larger than this table: a single-pack endpoint currently lists roughly 30 shared tools alongside the pack's own. The connection's initialize response states its exact scope, and is the authoritative answer for a given day.

This is deliberate, not multiplexing by accident. The meta-tools are what let a scoped connection answer a question this pack does not cover — via ask_pipeworx, which routes across the whole catalog — without you adding a second MCP server. There is currently no way to mount a pack endpoint without them; if the extra schemas cost you more context than the routing is worth, connect to the full gateway once rather than to several pack endpoints.

Or connect to the full Pipeworx gateway to get every pack's tools listed directly, instead of just this one's:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pipeworx": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Both URLs reach the same gateway and the same 1867+ data sources. The only difference is which pack's tools are listed directly; ask_pipeworx reaches all of them from either one.

No MCP client? Call it over HTTP

curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/disaster_declarations \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"state":"CA","year":2024}'

No account needed for the first calls. Inspect any tool: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/disaster_declarations. Find one: POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_packs with {"query":"..."}.

Run it from npm

@pipeworx/mcp-openfema is a local stdio bridge to the Pipeworx gateway: your MCP client starts it with npx, and it forwards every call to the same https://gateway.pipeworx.io/openfema/mcp endpoint shown above. It needs network access; there is no offline mode.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openfema": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-openfema"]
    }
  }
}

Without a key it calls anonymously, capped at 50 calls a day. A free account raises that to 200 a day: get a key at https://pipeworx.io/signup and add "env": { "PIPEWORX_API_KEY": "<your key>" } to the server entry. The key is sent as a Bearer token, the same way a hosted connection sends it, so calls are metered and billed exactly as they are there.

It lists only this pack's tools by default. Set PIPEWORX_META_TOOLS=1 to also list ask_pipeworx and the other gateway-wide tools.

Behind an HTTPS proxy: Node's built-in fetch does not read HTTPS_PROXY by default. Newer Node releases honour it when NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY=1 is set; check your Node version's documentation.

Using with ask_pipeworx

Instead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English — this works on the pack endpoint above as well as on the full gateway:

ask_pipeworx({ question: "your question about Openfema data" })

The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.

More

• Docs and guides
• pipeworx.io

License

MIT