1 flood insurance claims·$520 paid·7 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 Douglas 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.
Flash flooding from summer thunderstorms dominates the flood history of Douglas County, South Dakota, accounting for 13 of the 20 recorded flood events over the last 30 years, alongside 7 general flood events.
Recent history illustrates these varied threats. In March 2019, rainfall on frozen ground and snowpack caused considerable overland flooding. Later, a multi-day heavy rainfall event from June 20 to 22, 2024, brought widespread totals of 5 to 15 inches, causing major to record river flooding and extensive overland impacts that devastated several communities.
Properties located in Zone A should pay the most attention to these risks, where historical National Flood Insurance Program records show 1 claim with an average payout of $520 and an average recorded water depth of 0 inches.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
8 NOAA storm reports from Douglas County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the South Dakota flood stories →
18 federal disaster declarations since 1976, 7 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms, Straight-line Winds, And Flooding | Jun 16, 2024 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Sep 9, 2019 |
| Severe Winter Storm, Snowstorm, And Flooding | Mar 13, 2019 |
| Severe Winter Storm And Snowstorm | Apr 8, 2013 |
| Flooding | Mar 10, 2010 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Jan 20, 2010 |
| Severe Storms And Flooding | Jun 2, 2008 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Nov 27, 2005 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
20 since 1996: 13 flash floods and 7 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Jun 21, 2024 | $582,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 9, 2020 | $5,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 6, 2020 | $10,000 |
| Flood | Mar 13, 2019 | $670,000 |
| Flood | Sep 12, 2019 | $21,000 |
| Flash Flood | Sep 10, 2019 | $100,000 |
| Flood | Jun 1, 2019 | — |
| Flood | Jul 13, 2018 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Jun 21, 2024. A multi-day significant heavy rainfall event from June 20-22 resulted in widespread rain totals between 5 and 10 inches with pockets in excess of 15 inches across portions of southeast South Dakota, northwest Iowa, and southwest Minnesota. As rainfall reached area streams and rivers, major to record flooding was observed, devastating several towns and communities. Extensive overland flooding also resulted in signi…
Flash Flood · Jun 9, 2020. Strong frontal forcing resulted in the redevelopment of elevated thunderstorms during the very early morning to the west of the band from the previous evening. Storms quickly became linear with the development of a couple of mesovortices, which were the focus of damaging winds while tracking northeast along the line. Heavy training rainfall brought areas of flooding.
Flash Flood · Jul 6, 2020. Lift associated with a jet streak across southern North Dakota interacted with an unstable and weakly capped environment with 30 to 40 knots of deep-layer shear to produce a couple of smaller clusters of thunderstorms with large hail and damaging wind during the evening and overnight which progressed east and southeast across southeast South Dakota. The final cluster was a larger-scale bowing segment which produc…
Flood · Mar 13, 2019. Rainfall of one to three inches on frozen ground and into a snow pack with between 2 and 5 inches of liquid water equivalent resulted in considerable overland flooding.||One of the hardest hit areas was around Yankton, where a No Travel Advisory was issued for the city on March 13-14. Businesses along north Highway 81 toward Yankton Mall had considerable ponding of water. Water rescues were necessary as cars sta…
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 Douglas 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.