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Davison County, South Dakota: 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
730
1996 to 2026
People killed and injured in those events
1 / 17
Deaths (direct and indirect) / injuries (direct)
Property damage NOAA recorded
$44.8M
Nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation
FEMA disaster declarations naming this county
15
1976 to 2024
NFIP flood insurance claims
28
1984 to 2024; a count, not a rate
NFIP payments on those claims
$2.0M
Nominal dollars

What this means

  • The event NOAA recorded most often here is Hail, with 156 records.
  • The costliest single record is Flood in 2019: $15.4M in property damage, in the dollars of that year.
  • The deadliest record is Flood in 2019, with 1 death.
  • FEMA has declared 15 disasters that named this county, most often for flood.
  • The worst year for flood insurance claims was 2024, with 10 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 15 disasters that named Davison County between 1976 and 2024.

FEMA disaster declarations naming Davison County, by incident type
Incident typeDisastersMost recent
Flood52024
Severe Storm52019
Biological22020
Coastal Storm12005
Drought11976
Snowstorm11995

Most recent declarations

  • DR-4807 2024 · Flood · Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding
  • DR-4527 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
  • EM-3475 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
  • DR-4469 2019 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
  • DR-4440 2019 · Flood · Severe Winter Storm, Snowstorm, And Flooding
  • DR-1702 2007 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
  • DR-1620 2005 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storm
  • EM-3234 2005 · Coastal Storm · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation
  • DR-1173 1997 · Flood · Severe Flooding, Sever Winter Storms,heavy Rains High Winds
  • DR-1156 1997 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storms And Blizzard Conditions

Not counted above: 41 statewide declarations, which covered every county in South 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.

Storms recorded by NOAA, by type

NOAA storm event records for Davison County, 1996 to 2026, by event type
Event typeRecordsDeathsInjuriesProperty damage
Hail15600$5.0M
Thunderstorm Wind133015$9.1M
Winter Weather8400$0
Flood8010$27.5M
Drought4800$0
High Wind4600$256K
Blizzard3300$285K
Winter Storm3000$100K
Cold/Wind Chill1900$0
Flash Flood1900$550K
Excessive Heat1700$0
Extreme Cold/Wind Chill1400$0
Strong Wind1300$0
Heavy Snow1100$100K
Heat1000$0
Tornado900$630K
Lightning500$67K
Ice Storm202$1.1M
Heavy Rain100$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 Davison County each year. The busiest year was 2022, with 41 records.

Show the numbers for every year
NOAA storm event records in Davison County by year
YearRecordsDeathsProperty damage
1996170$190K
1997170$528K
199880$131K
1999110$0
2000210$8.2M
200190$60K
2002250$3.0M
2003260$540K
2004280$62K
2005220$1.2M
2006170$100K
2007210$200K
2008220$0
2009410$10K
2010410$235K
2011220$1.0M
2012300$2.0M
2013100$0
201490$20K
2015240$3K
2016150$15K
2017170$0
2018320$0
2019411$16.5M
2020340$336K
2021210$0
2022410$0
2023370$0
2024300$10.3M
2025310$0
2026100$0

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

Notable events

Costliest records

  1. Flood · Sep 12, 2019$15.4M
    NOAA name: Davison County · NOAA record 858232
  2. Flood · Jun 20, 2024$10.3M
    NOAA name: Davison County · NOAA record 1193436
  3. Thunderstorm Wind · Aug 5, 2000$8.0M
    NOAA name: Davison County · 10 injuries · NOAA record 5171319
  4. Hail · Jul 24, 2002$3.0M
    NOAA name: Davison County · NOAA record 5309525
  5. Hail · May 5, 2012$2.0M
    NOAA name: Davison County · NOAA record 383007

Deadliest records

  1. Flood · Apr 1, 20191 death
    NOAA name: Davison County · NOAA record 832504

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 $2.0M on 28 claims in Davison County from 1984 to 2024.

Years with the most NFIP claims in Davison County
YearClaimsPaid
202410$1.2M
20195$751K
20104$42K
19933$14K
19842$12K

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 Davison 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 Thunderstorm3294 NCEI events over 31 years (9.48/yr). 5 federal disaster declarations naming the county.
Flood, External3100 NCEI events over 31 years (3.23/yr). 5 federal disaster declarations naming the county.
Snow Fall / Blizzard / Ice Storm3160 NCEI events over 31 years (5.16/yr). 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county.
Temperature Extremes360 NCEI events over 31 years (1.94/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county.
Drought348 NCEI events over 31 years (1.55/yr). 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county.
High Wind (non-convective)359 NCEI events over 31 years (1.90/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named 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.
Tornado29 NCEI events over 31 years (0.29/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 Davison 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 Davison 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 730 records, 395 were filed against this county and 335 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.
  • Counts last rebuilt from the source records on Sep 15, 2026.

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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.