47 flood insurance claims·$620,897 paid·10 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 Kingsbury 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 profile of Kingsbury County, complemented by broader general flooding events. According to NOAA Storm Events Database records from the last 30 years, the county experienced 10 flash flood events and 8 general flood events. Recent activity includes localized flash flooding caused by sluggish storms and training heavy rainfall cores on August 5, 2023, as well as scattered thunderstorms driven by a cold front on June 25, 2020, and June 26, 2020.
National Flood Insurance Program claims data demonstrate that flood impacts extend across multiple zones, with varying payouts and recorded water depths. Zone D recorded 19 claims with an average payout of $17,909 and an average water depth of 1 inch. Zone X recorded 10 claims averaging $24,059 with an average water depth of 2 inches. Properties categorized under Zone X Unshaded logged 6 claims with an average payout of $25,178 and an average water depth of 6 inches. Additionally, Zone Unknown accounted for 7 claims averaging $8,959 with an average water depth of 1 inch, while Zone A logged 5 claims averaging $3,418 with an average water depth of 0 inches.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the most attention to properties in Zone X, Zone X Unshaded, and Zone D, which account for the majority of historical insurance claims and higher average payout amounts.
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 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 2011, with 24 claims and $479,637 paid, the year of 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.
7 NOAA storm reports from Kingsbury County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the South Dakota flood stories →
24 federal disaster declarations since 1969, 10 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storms And Snowstorm | Dec 12, 2022 |
| Severe Storm, Straight-line Winds, Tornadoes, And Flooding | May 12, 2022 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Sep 9, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Jun 30, 2019 |
| Severe Winter Storm, Snowstorm, And Flooding | Mar 13, 2019 |
| Severe Storms, Tornadoes, And Flooding | Jun 19, 2013 |
| Flooding | Mar 11, 2011 |
| Flooding | Mar 10, 2010 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
18 since 1996: 10 flash floods and 8 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Aug 5, 2023 | $25,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jun 26, 2020 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 25, 2020 | — |
| Flood | Mar 13, 2019 | $370,000 |
| Flood | Sep 12, 2019 | $52,000 |
| Flood | Jun 1, 2019 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 15, 2018 | — |
| Flood | Mar 16, 2011 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Aug 5, 2023. An outflow boundary from earlier day convection focused a gradient of instability and storm development with additional destabilization from heating by early afternoon. Boundary interactions from sluggish storms led to training of heavy rainfall cores and localized flash flooding.
Flash Flood · Jun 26, 2020. A cold front during the late afternoon and early evening hours slashed into an unstable airmass with 2000-3000 J/kg MLCAPE and 30-35 knots of 0-6 km shear. Scattered thunderstorms developed with the thick CAPE profile supportive of large hail and over 1000 J/kg DCAPE resulting in occasional damaging wind.
Flash Flood · Jun 25, 2020. A cold front during the late afternoon and early evening hours slashed into an unstable airmass with 2000-3000 J/kg MLCAPE and 30-35 knots of 0-6 km shear. Scattered thunderstorms developed with the thick CAPE profile supportive of large hail and over 1000 J/kg DCAPE resulting in occasional damaging wind.
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 Kingsbury 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.