Skip to contentCALCHIS

Scott County, Illinois: hazard history

What federal records show has already happened here: disaster declarations, storms, and flood insurance claims. This is a record of the past. It is not a forecast and not a hazard score.

At a glance

Storm events recorded by NOAA
235
1996 to 2026
People killed and injured in those events
1 / 4
Deaths (direct and indirect) / injuries (direct)
Property damage NOAA recorded
$1.4M
Nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation
FEMA disaster declarations naming this county
18
1973 to 2023
NFIP flood insurance claims
28
1979 to 2015; a count, not a rate
NFIP payments on those claims
$162K
Nominal dollars

What this means

  • The event NOAA recorded most often here is Thunderstorm Wind, with 61 records.
  • The costliest single record is Flash Flood in 2015: $300K in property damage, in the dollars of that year.
  • The deadliest record is Tornado in 2004, with 1 death.
  • FEMA has declared 18 disasters that named this county, most often for severe storm.
  • The worst year for flood insurance claims was 1993, with 7 claims.

What this can't tell you

  • What happens next. Past events do not set the odds of the next one.
  • Anything before 1996 from NOAA. That is when NOAA began recording every event type; earlier files hold only tornado, hail and wind, so they are left out on purpose.
  • Today's cost. Damage and payments are in the dollars of the year they happened.
  • A flood rate. NFIP counts claims but not how many homes were insured, and many flooded homes carry no flood insurance.
  • Earthquakes, wildfire perimeters or radar-detected hail. Those records are not tied to counties.

Federal disaster declarations (FEMA)

FEMA declared 18 disasters that named Scott County between 1973 and 2023.

FEMA disaster declarations naming Scott County, by incident type
Incident typeDisastersMost recent
Severe Storm62023
Flood52019
Snowstorm32011
Biological22020
Hurricane12005
Tornado12002

Most recent declarations

  • DR-4728 2023 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Flooding
  • EM-3435 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
  • DR-4489 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
  • DR-4461 2019 · Flood · Severe Storms And Flooding
  • DR-4116 2013 · Flood · Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding
  • DR-1960 2011 · Snowstorm · Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm
  • DR-1800 2008 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Flooding
  • DR-1771 2008 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Flooding
  • EM-3269 2006 · Snowstorm · Snow
  • DR-1633 2006 · Severe Storm · Tornadoes And Severe Storms

Not counted above: 2 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Illinois. A declaration is a decision to send federal help, not a measure of how bad an event was. Records run from 1953. Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries.

Storms recorded by NOAA, by type

NOAA storm event records for Scott County, 1996 to 2026, by event type
Event typeRecordsDeathsInjuriesProperty damage
Thunderstorm Wind6103$429K
Hail3400$145K
Flash Flood3100$425K
Heavy Snow1800$0
Tornado1311$325K
Winter Storm1300$0
Flood1100$0
Drought1000$0
Excessive Heat800$0
Winter Weather800$0
Heat700$0
High Wind700$0
Blizzard400$21K
Extreme Cold/Wind Chill400$0
Cold/Wind Chill200$0
Ice Storm200$100K
Dense Fog100$0
Frost/Freeze100$0

Records start in 1996. Damage is NOAA's estimate at the time, in nominal dollars, and is often rounded; it is not insurance claims data. A storm that crossed two NOAA zones in this county is recorded, and counted, once per zone. A storm filed against a forecast zone is counted in every county that zone covers, with the whole storm's damage; do not add these figures across counties.

Year by year

NOAA storm event records in Scott County each year. The busiest year was 2011, with 19 records.

Show the numbers for every year
NOAA storm event records in Scott County by year
YearRecordsDeathsProperty damage
1996100$0
1997120$0
1998110$1K
199980$265K
2000100$0
200160$0
2002140$0
2003100$0
200471$0
200520$0
2006120$0
200770$110K
2008140$184K
200990$98K
201070$15K
2011190$397K
201260$0
201340$0
201480$20K
201560$340K
201630$15K
201750$0
201810$0
201920$0
202010$0
202120$0
202280$0
202370$0
202490$0
2025110$0
202640$0

Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.

Notable events

Costliest records

  1. Flash Flood · Jul 19, 2015$300K
    NOAA name: Scott County · NOAA record 597235
  2. Thunderstorm Wind · Jun 10, 2011$200K
    NOAA name: Scott County · NOAA record 318234
  3. Tornado · Apr 8, 1999$150K
    NOAA name: Scott County · NOAA record 5686883
  4. Tornado · Apr 8, 1999$100K
    NOAA name: Scott County · NOAA record 5686884
  5. Ice Storm · Dec 8, 2007$100K
    NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 69227

Deadliest records

  1. Tornado · May 24, 20041 death
    NOAA name: Scott County · 1 injury · NOAA record 5400995

Each line is one NOAA record, linked to its page at NOAA. One large storm can appear more than once if NOAA recorded it in several zones of this county. Dollars are nominal.

Flood insurance claims (NFIP)

The National Flood Insurance Program paid $162K on 28 claims in Scott County from 1979 to 2015.

Years with the most NFIP claims in Scott County
YearClaimsPaid
19937$68K
19795$9K
20014$9K
20113$20K
19953$1K

A count of claims, not a rate: NFIP publishes no count of insured homes beside it, and most flood damage is uninsured. Nominal dollars. Records run from 1978 to 2024; claims filed without a county code are not on any county page. Source: FEMA OpenFEMA FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims.

Hazard vulnerability analysis: the probability column for a facility in Scott County

A hazard vulnerability analysis rates each hazard for probability, impact, preparedness and response. Probability is the one column the county’s federal record can fill — NCEI storm events from 1996 to 2026 and FEMA declarations naming the county — and this is what it says for a facility here, on the 0–3 scale of the all-hazards structure surveyors expect. The other six columns are the facility’s own judgment about its building, and Calchis leaves them blank.

HazardProb.Basis, from the county record
Severe Thunderstorm395 NCEI events over 31 years (3.06/yr). 6 federal disaster declarations naming the county.
Flood, External342 NCEI events over 31 years (1.35/yr). 5 federal disaster declarations naming the county.
Snow Fall / Blizzard / Ice Storm345 NCEI events over 31 years (1.45/yr). 3 federal disaster declarations naming the county.
Hurricane / Tropical Storm2No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county.
Tornado213 NCEI events over 31 years (0.42/yr). 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county.
Temperature Extremes222 NCEI events over 31 years (0.71/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Drought210 NCEI events over 31 years (0.32/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
High Wind (non-convective)27 NCEI events over 31 years (0.23/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Epidemic22 federal disaster declarations naming the county.
Wild Fire1No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Earthquake1No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Landslide1No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Tidal Wave / Tsunami1No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Volcano1No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Dam Inundation1No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.

A dash means the record does not speak to that hazard; it is not a zero. Whether a finished document satisfies the CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule is the facility’s finding and its surveyor’s. Complete the HVA for a facility in Scott County — the technological, human and hazardous-materials rows, the six facility columns, the approval and the printed document — or read the sample analysis on that page first.

How this page was made

  • Every figure is counted from public federal records held by Calchis: NOAA NCEI Storm Events, FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations, and FEMA NFIP claims. Nothing is modeled or estimated.
  • NOAA files some events against a county and others against an NWS forecast zone, and publishes a code for both. Records are counted as Scott County by that code — county records by the county's own FIPS code, zone records through the National Weather Service's published list of which counties each zone covers. No name matching is involved. Of 235 records, 146 were filed against this county and 89 against a forecast zone covering it. A zone storm is counted in every county its zone covers, and its damage figure is the whole storm's, not this county's share — NOAA does not publish that split. So these figures describe this county; they must not be added up across counties. Left out: 1% of Illinois's NOAA records, which are marine zones or zones NWS does not map to a county.
  • Counts last rebuilt from the source records on Sep 15, 2026.

Related

Responsible for Scott County?

This page is the record of what has happened. Calchis also watches live NWS, USGS and NHC feeds against the places you name and alerts you when an event approaches them.

Free includes Live map + 3 triggers + 10 bond positions. Analyst is $149/mo for 1,000-location portfolios, ep curves, predictions, parametric triggers.

Recorded history from federal public records. Not a hazard score, a risk score, or a forecast, and not a substitute for professional actuarial or emergency-management assessment. Decision-support intelligence — not a primary alerting or dispatch system. Verify against official sources.