Deer Lodge County, Montana: hazard history

FEMA declared 10 disasters that named Deer Lodge County between 1974 and 2020.

Most recent declarations

• DR-4508 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3476 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-1996 2011 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Flooding
• EM-3253 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation
• FM-2317 2000 · Fire · Mt-southwestern Zone Two Fire Complex
• DR-1340 2000 · Fire · Wildfires
• DR-1183 1997 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms,ice Jams, Snow Melt, Flooding
• DR-1105 1996 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Flooding, And Ice Jams
• DR-761 1986 · Flood · Heavy Rains, Landslides & Flooding
• DR-417 1974 · Flood · Severe Storms, Flooding & Landslides

Not counted above: 32 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Montana. 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.

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.

NOAA storm event records in Deer Lodge County each year. The busiest year was 1996, with 46 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Flash Flood · Jul 15, 2017$685K
   NOAA name: Deer Lodge County · NOAA record 705265
2. High Wind · Nov 12, 2007$650K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 2 injuries · NOAA record 60609
3. High Wind · Jun 13, 2020$200K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 895194
4. Heavy Snow · Dec 29, 2004$85K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5430390
5. Flood · May 1, 1997$69K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5600152

Deadliest records

1. Winter Weather · Dec 23, 20253 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $8K damage · NOAA record 1307799
2. Winter Weather · Oct 3, 20132 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 479768
3. Avalanche · Jan 6, 20121 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $500 damage · 1 injury · NOAA record 359763
4. Winter Weather · Dec 2, 20121 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 422479
5. Winter Storm · Nov 24, 20151 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $15K damage · NOAA record 607396

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.

The National Flood Insurance Program paid $8K on 9 claims in Deer Lodge County from 1980 to 2019.

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.

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.

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 Deer Lodge 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.

• 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 Deer Lodge 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 422 records, 39 were filed against this county and 383 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: 21% of Montana'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.