Editorial

Most disaster-prone counties in South Dakota

South Dakota has 1,235 county-level FEMA disaster declarations across 65 counties. The dominant hazard type is severe storm. Turner County leads with 26 declarations, followed by Hanson County and Day County.

This ranking shows every county in South Dakota ordered by how many times FEMA has issued a disaster declaration affecting it. Counties near coastlines, river systems, or wildfire corridors tend to appear at the top because the same geographic exposure produces recurring events across decades.

Each county links to a full disaster history page with the complete declaration timeline, hazard type breakdown, decade trends, and whatever FEMA spending data is available. For a national view, see the most disaster-prone counties in America page.

South Dakota ranking

All counties by FEMA declaration count

#CountyDeclarationsTop hazardFirst yearLatest year
1Turner County26Severe Storm19692024
2Hanson County25Flood19692024
3Day County24Severe Storm19762023
4Deuel County24Severe Storm19692023
5Hutchinson County24Severe Storm19692024
6Kingsbury County24Severe Storm19692023
7Roberts County24Severe Storm19762023
8Aurora County23Flood19762024
9Codington County23Flood19692023
10Spink County23Severe Storm19692022
11Clark County22Flood19762023
12Grant County22Flood19692023
13Gregory County22Severe Storm19762024
14Hamlin County22Flood19692023
15Jackson County22Severe Storm19762024
16Sanborn County22Flood19692024
17Brookings County21Severe Storm19692023
18Brule County21Severe Storm19762024
19Butte County21Severe Storm19652022
20Hand County21Flood19692024
21Jerauld County21Flood19762020
22McCook County21Severe Storm19762024
23Meade County21Severe Storm19652020
24Moody County21Flood19692024
25Perkins County21Severe Storm19762020
26Ziebach County21Severe Storm19762023
27Beadle County20Flood19692022
28Buffalo County20Flood19692024
29Edmunds County20Flood19692020
30Lake County20Flood19692024
31Marshall County20Severe Storm19762023
32Miner County20Severe Storm19762024
33Pennington County20Flood19652021
34Tripp County20Flood19762024
35Brown County19Flood19692023
36Clay County19Flood19692024
37Union County19Flood19692024
38Douglas County18Severe Storm19762024
39Charles Mix County17Flood19762024
40Faulk County17Flood19692023
41Lawrence County17Severe Storm19652020
42Lincoln County17Flood19692024
43McPherson County17Severe Storm19692022
44Minnehaha County17Severe Storm19692024
45Bon Homme County16Severe Storm19762024
46Corson County16Severe Storm19762020
47Custer County16Fire19722026
48Dewey County16Severe Storm19762020
49Haakon County16Severe Storm19762022
50Hughes County16Severe Storm19692020
51Lyman County16Flood19762020
52Potter County16Flood19762023
53Sully County16Flood19762020
54Yankton County16Severe Storm19762024
55Campbell County15Coastal Storm19762020
56Davison County15Severe Storm19762024
57Fall River County15Severe Storm19972020
58Harding County15Severe Storm19762020
59Jones County15Severe Storm19762023
60Bennett County14Flood19762024
61Hyde County14Flood19692020
62Mellette County14Coastal Storm19762023
63Stanley County14Severe Storm19762023
64Todd County13Flood19762023
65Walworth County12Flood19762020