30 flood insurance claims·$91,846 paid·8 federal flood & hurricane disasters
Share of the whole county outline, rivers and lakes included; parts FEMA hasn’t mapped count as zero.
Shaded areas are FEMA’s mapped flood hazard zones in and around Stark County, North Dakota. Zoomed out they are simplified; at street level the map switches to FEMA’s exact layer. Tap anywhere to check that spot, or search an address above.
In flood insurance claims here that reported a flood depth, the average was 3 inches.
Drawn to scale against an 80-inch door. Even a few inches soaks flooring, the bottom of the drywall and anything plugged in near the floor.
Average of the depths reported on claims (zero and implausible values left out); FEMA’s record doesn’t say exactly where each depth was measured. Source: OpenFEMA NFIP claims.
The worst year was 1978, with 6 claims and $8,222 paid, the year of Storms, Ice Jams, Snowmelt & Flooding.
Bar height is scaled by square root so ordinary years stay visible next to the worst one. NFIP claims by year of loss. Source: OpenFEMA.
4 NOAA storm reports from Stark County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the North Dakota flood stories →
16 federal disaster declarations since 1966, 8 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms And Flooding | May 17, 2013 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 20, 2010 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Mar 13, 2009 |
| Severe Winter Storm And Record And/or Near Record Snow | Oct 4, 2005 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 29, 2005 |
| Severe Storms, Flooding, And Ground Saturation | Jun 1, 2005 |
| Severe Flooding,severe Winter Storms, Snowmelt, Spring Rains | Feb 28, 1997 |
| Severe Winter Storms And Blizzard Conditions | Jan 3, 1997 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
7 since 1996: 4 flash floods and 3 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Jul 3, 2022 | $500,000 |
| Flood | Aug 15, 2014 | $550,000 |
| Flash Flood | Aug 5, 2011 | $15,000 |
| Flood | Mar 6, 2009 | $30,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 18, 2007 | $50,000 |
| Flood | Mar 17, 2003 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 10, 2002 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Jul 3, 2022. Thunderstorms developed near and ahead of a surface low over southeast Montana, and moved into North Dakota where strong deep layer shear and instability were noted. Some of the storms became severe, with strong wind gusts as the main threat. The strongest wind gust was 62 mph and occurred in Hettinger and Stark counties. Very heavy rain caused flash flooding in Dickinson, Stark County, which overwhelmed the city…
Flood · Aug 15, 2014. Several waves of heavy rain, with embedded non severe thunderstorms with torrential rain, moved through western and central North Dakota. There was overland, stream, river and flash flooding, mainly over the southern half of the western and central parts of the state. The hardest hit areas were between Williston and Dickinson, and between Bismarck and Jamestown. Up to six inches of rain fell from Kintyre to Napole…
Flash Flood · Aug 5, 2011. Surface low pressure over southwest North Dakota combined with a lead short wave impulse to trigger thunderstorms across southwest and south central North Dakota through the afternoon hours and into the evening of August 5th. Severe Thunderstorm Watch number 729 and 731 were in effect for this event. One particularly strong bowing storm produced most of the large hail and high wind reports as it tracked from west…
Flood · Mar 6, 2009. This devastating flooding continued into April, and in some cases worsened.||Western and central North Dakota experienced a snowy winter of 2008-2009. Bismarck, for example, had the snowiest December on record, which was also the snowiest month ever on record, with 33.3 inches of snow in December 2008. March 2009 was the fifth snowiest month on record with 29.7 inches. For the entire season Bismarck ended up the s…
National Weather Service narratives, lightly trimmed. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Every colour on the map above is a place on this drawing: where the ground sits relative to the flood FEMA plans for.
If a building in Stark County is in a high-risk zone (A or V) and its mortgage comes from a federally regulated or insured lender, or is federally backed, flood insurance is required.
Outside those zones it is optional, and often worth having: from 2014 to 2024 nearly one-third of NFIP claims came from outside the high-risk Special Flood Hazard Area. Since Risk Rating 2.0, NFIP premiums are set for each building, so the only reliable price is a quote: FloodSmart.gov or a local agent.