Williams County, North Dakota: hazard history

FEMA declared 20 disasters that named Williams County between 1969 and 2026.

Most recent declarations

• DR-4934 2026 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Tornadoes
• DR-4852 2024 · Fire · Wildfires And Straight-line Winds
• DR-4660 2022 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storm And Flooding
• DR-4613 2021 · Severe Storm · Severe Storm, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding
• EM-3477 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-4509 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• DR-1986 2011 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storm
• DR-1981 2011 · Flood · Flooding
• DR-1829 2009 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Flooding
• EM-3247 2005 · Coastal Storm · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation

Not counted above: 19 statewide declarations, which covered every county in North Dakota. 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 Williams County each year. The busiest year was 2021, with 40 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Blizzard · Apr 23, 2022$15.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 1020488
2. Wildfire · Oct 5, 2024$12.0M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 2 deaths · 8 injuries · NOAA record 1219528
3. Blizzard · Jan 9, 1997$1.5M
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 6 injuries · NOAA record 5587133
4. Thunderstorm Wind · Sep 3, 2014$1.0M
   NOAA name: Williams County · NOAA record 542024
5. Hail · Jun 10, 2021$1.0M
   NOAA name: Williams County · NOAA record 962362

Deadliest records

1. Winter Storm · Jan 1, 19992 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5679724
2. Wildfire · Oct 5, 20242 deaths
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $12.0M damage · 8 injuries · NOAA record 1219528
3. Cold/Wind Chill · Nov 21, 19961 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5569825
4. Cold/Wind Chill · Dec 24, 19961 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5580527
5. Extreme Cold/Wind Chill · Feb 1, 20111 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 274935

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 $247K on 17 claims in Williams County from 1978 to 2023.

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 Williams 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 Williams 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 578 records, 369 were filed against this county and 209 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: 3% of North Dakota'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.