Sawyer County, Wisconsin: hazard history

FEMA declared 9 disasters that named Sawyer County between 1976 and 2020.

Most recent declarations

• DR-4520 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
• EM-3454 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
• DR-4276 2016 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms And Flooding
• EM-3249 2005 · Hurricane · Hurricane Katrina Evacuation
• DR-1432 2002 · Tornado · Severe Storms, Tornadoes And Flooding
• DR-1332 2000 · Severe Storm · Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding
• DR-1284 1999 · Flood · Wi-flood-07/20/99
• EM-3048 1977 · Severe Storm · Winds, Hail & Rain
• EM-3014 1976 · Drought · Drought

Not counted above: 4 statewide declarations, which covered every county in Wisconsin. 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 Sawyer County each year. The busiest year was 2023, with 39 records.

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

Costliest records

1. Flood · Apr 12, 2023$300K
   NOAA name: Sawyer County · NOAA record 1097216
2. Lightning · May 25, 2008$200K
   NOAA name: Sawyer County · NOAA record 105675
3. Ice Storm · Mar 1, 2022$100K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 1013890
4. Thunderstorm Wind · Jul 14, 2010$80K
   NOAA name: Sawyer County · NOAA record 250556
5. Flood · Apr 14, 2002$50K
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 5306174

Deadliest records

1. Thunderstorm Wind · Jun 29, 20051 death
   NOAA name: Sawyer County · NOAA record 5459254
2. Extreme Cold/Wind Chill · Jan 13, 20091 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 152393
3. Extreme Cold/Wind Chill · Feb 8, 20091 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 154481
4. Extreme Cold/Wind Chill · Feb 11, 20091 death
   NOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 156157
5. Thunderstorm Wind · Jun 17, 20181 death
   NOAA name: Sawyer County · 3 injuries · NOAA record 764786

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 $69K on 8 claims in Sawyer County from 2002 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 Sawyer 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 Sawyer 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 506 records, 333 were filed against this county and 173 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.