24 flood insurance claims·$368,084 paid·9 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 Beadle County, South 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.
Flooding in Beadle County is dominated by standard floods and severe flash flooding, backed by 66 recorded flood events and 12 flash flood events over the last 30 years.
Intense rainfall and rapid snowmelt frequently trigger high water. For example, slow-moving thunderstorms in August 2025 dropped heavy rainfall of up to 5 to 7 inches in parts of the county, while another event that same month brought totals as high as 8.36 inches northwest of Broadland. Earlier in the year, rapid snowmelt from above-normal temperatures in April 2023 caused moderate to locally major flooding through the James River Basin.
Property owners and real estate professionals should note that National Flood Insurance Program claims have been filed across multiple designations. Residents with properties in mapped Zone A—where claims recorded an average water depth of 12 inches—along with those in Zone X and areas with unknown flood zones, should pay close attention to local drainage conditions and historical flood risks.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
In flood insurance claims here that reported a flood depth, the average was 12 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 1997, with 14 claims and $210,786 paid, the year of Severe Winter Storms and Blizzard Conditions and Severe Flooding, Sever Winter Storms,heavy Rains High Winds.
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.
15 NOAA storm reports from Beadle County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the South Dakota flood stories →
20 federal disaster declarations since 1969, 9 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storm, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 12, 2022 |
| Severe Winter Storm, Snowstorm, And Flooding | Mar 13, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Jun 19, 2013 |
| Flooding | Mar 11, 2011 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Jul 21, 2010 |
| Flooding | Mar 10, 2010 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 4, 2007 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Nov 27, 2005 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
78 since 1996: 12 flash floods and 66 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Aug 22, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 21, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 3, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Apr 12, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 10, 2023 | — |
| Flood | Aug 6, 2023 | — |
| Flood | Jul 4, 2023 | — |
| Flood | May 1, 2023 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Aug 22, 2025. A wet August resulted in minor river flooding along portions of the middle James River.
Flash Flood · Aug 21, 2025. Clusters of slow moving thunderstorms with embedded supercells developed within an environment of 40 kts of deep-layer shear and 2000 J/kg MLCAPE as a mid-level wave moved across the region. Isolated stronger storms had persistent enough updrafts to produce large hail, along with pockets of heavier rainfall of up to 5 to 7 inches in parts of Beadle County.
Flash Flood · Aug 3, 2025. Overnight and early morning heavy rainfall from 5 to 9 inches occurred across northern Beadle County, with reported amounts as high as 8.36 inches 13 miles northwest of Broadland, 6.12 inches at Hitchcock, and 5.70 inches 5 miles east of Hitchcock.
Flood · Apr 12, 2023. Rapid snowmelt from a few day period of well above normal temperatures focused on the 11-13th of April resulted in moderate to locally major flooding through much of the James River Basin. Some areas north of I-90 lost between 2 to 5 inches of snow water equivalent (SWE) from the first to second week of April, but antecedent drought conditions resulted in only a percentage of this water actually making it into the…
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 Beadle 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.