Marshall County, South Dakota: hazard history

FEMA declared 20 disasters that named Marshall County between 1976 and 2023.

Most recent declarations

• DR-4718 2023 · Flood · Flooding
• EM-3475 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-4527 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• DR-4440 2019 · Flood · Severe Winter Storm, Snowstorm, And Flooding
• DR-4298 2016 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storm
• DR-1984 2011 · Flood · Flooding
• DR-1915 2010 · Flood · Flooding
• DR-1844 2009 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Flooding
• DR-1702 2007 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• DR-1620 2005 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storm

Not counted above: 38 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.

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 Marshall County each year. The busiest year was 2015, with 54 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Flood · May 11, 1998$320K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5646752
2. Ice Storm · Dec 25, 2016$289K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 670238
3. Strong Wind · May 24, 2008$200K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 107210
4. Flood · Apr 12, 2023$150K
   NOAA name: Marshall County · NOAA record 1097383
5. Flood · Apr 1, 2019$143K
   NOAA name: Marshall County · NOAA record 820941

Deadliest records

1. Blizzard · Feb 12, 20201 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 876089
2. Strong Wind · May 7, 20201 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 897450
3. Winter Weather · Mar 14, 20231 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 1090695

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 $155K on 13 claims in Marshall County from 1997 to 2014.

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 Marshall 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 Marshall 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 562 records, 296 were filed against this county and 266 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.