FEMA Records
23
Above median
South Dakota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Aurora County, SD
23 FEMA disaster declarations (1976-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Very Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 23
- FEMA declarations
- 20
- Major disasters
- 20
- NRI risk · Very Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Aurora County. Its 23 FEMA declarations are 21% above the South Dakota county mean and exceed the count for 62% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it safer than 20%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Safer than 20%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Very Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 23
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 2
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records; an EM authorizes a narrower set of federal assistance than a DR.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 46003 · Aurora County 23 declarations · rank 1208/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 23
- MAJOR-HEAVY 87%
- RANK-LOWER #1,208
- PHOTO-FINISH Roanoke
- NRI-LOW Very Low
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +21%
Nearest declaration peer: Roanoke, VA (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · South Dakota state profile
Aurora County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Aurora County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Amherst · near 23
Amherst · near
23 declarations
- Aurora · this county 23
Aurora · this county
23 declarations
- Roanoke · near 23
Roanoke · near
23 declarations
- Vance · near 23
Vance · near
23 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Aurora County carries 23 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1208 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Aurora County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Aurora County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Aurora County
23 Top 38% higher than 62% of 3,266 counties
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more counties. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 · 2026-08-25
Aurora County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Aurora County is led by Cold Wave (about $3.5M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Very High), while Ice Storm carries the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate). EAL and risk score use different inputs; they need not agree.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025 release) - Expected Annual Loss vs composite risk rating by hazard.
What does Aurora County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
This county's FEMA National Risk Index composite lands at 19.6/100 (Very Low), a modest reading against the rest of the country. Expected Annual Loss is rated Very Low (roughly $8.1M in annualized losses), tempered or compounded by a Relatively Low social-vulnerability score and Relatively High community-resilience score. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Ice Storm carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 2 years here, based on 32 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 2 claims and $100.0K paid in total. PlainHazard calls 1-49 claims a light registry record, a label for this dataset rather than a finding that flood exposure is low. A short claims history can also reflect insurance take-up, the period covered, or losses that were never insured.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Aurora County's 23 federal records stand 21% above the South Dakota county mean of 19.0. That comparison describes how often federal action was recorded, including any Major Disaster, Emergency, and Fire Management entries shown on this page; it does not convert the count into future probability.
69 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Aurora County, SD · PlainHazard-derived composite from federal records
This 0–100 index is an explicit PlainHazard composite from FEMA declaration history only on the county surface (this DB has no county-level NOAA damage row) . It is not FEMA's National Risk Index, not a forecast, and not a safety, insurance, or preparedness rating. Open the calculator · Methodology
FEMA Declarations (1953–present) High
17/30
23 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.1x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
15/25
23 declarations (1.2x state county average of 19)
Major Disaster Share Very High
22/25
20 of 23 declarations are major disasters (87%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Aurora County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Aurora County
How to read this radar
Each axis: NRI risk rating (Very Low-Very High) on a 0-100 scale. Rounder = broad exposure; spiky = one or two hazards dominate.
Major Disaster share
87%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
20
Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Aurora County?
FEMA's National Risk Index models a historical event count and an annualized frequency for each hazard type. Most hazards are expressed as modeled occurrences per year; FEMA expresses drought and heat-wave frequency as event-days per year. These modeled frequencies are not forecasts.
| Hazard | NRI Risk Rating | Recurrence |
|---|---|---|
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 18 modeled event-days per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 7 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 927 years |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Low | an average of 16 times per year |
| Hail | Relatively Low | an average of 4.7 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 3 years |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,353 years |
| Strong Wind | Very Low | an average of 2.9 times per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 14 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Very Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 6.1 modeled event-days per year |
| Lightning | Very Low | an average of 36 times per year |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 9
Severe Storm 8
Biological 2
Snowstorm 2
Coastal Storm 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Aurora County's record, 39% of its declarations. Federal flood declarations cover two mechanisms that behave very differently: riverine flooding, which builds over days as a watershed drains and is usually forecast well in advance, and flash flooding, which can arrive in under an hour from rainfall that fell somewhere upstream.
Flood is also the one hazard class where a second federal dataset exists for the same events. The National Flood Insurance Program records what was actually paid on insured losses, so it measures a narrower thing than the declaration count: uninsured damage, and flooding outside mapped special flood hazard areas, never enters it. Reading the two together is more informative than either alone.
Declaration counts describe past federal action. They are a record of what was declared, not a forecast of future hazard probability.
Declaration Types
What DR / EM / FM mean
FEMA categorizes declarations as Major Disasters (DR), Emergencies (EM), or Fire Management Assistance (FM).
Major Disaster - 20 87.0%
of all 23 declarations
Emergency - 3 13.0%
of all 23 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2019 | 2 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 2 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2007 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 2 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 2 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1986 | 1 | |
Show 2 earlier declaration years
| 1984 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 23 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 23 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4807 | SEVERE STORMS, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2024-08-15 |
| 4656 | SEVERE STORM, STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2022-06-29 |
| 4527 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-05 |
| 3475 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4469 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2019-11-18 |
| 4463 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-09-23 |
| 4440 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, SNOWSTORM, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-06-07 |
| 1984 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2011-05-13 |
| 1915 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2010-05-13 |
| 1887 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2010-03-10 |
| 1774 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-07-09 |
| 1702 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2007-05-22 |
| 1620 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2005-12-20 |
| 3234 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-10 |
| 1173 | SEVERE FLOODING, SEVER WINTER STORMS,HEAVY RAINS HIGH WINDS | DR | Flood | 1997-04-07 |
| 1156 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND BLIZZARD CONDITIONS | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-10 |
| 1075 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Snowstorm | 1996-01-05 |
| 1052 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1995-05-26 |
| 1045 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS | DR | Snowstorm | 1995-03-14 |
| 999 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1993-07-19 |
Show 3 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 764 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1986-05-03 |
| 717 | SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1984-07-19 |
| 3015 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1976-06-17 |
Storm Events in South Dakota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Aurora County.
| Storm Type | Events | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thunderstorm Wind | 5,388 | 7 | 21 | $10.7M |
| Hail | 4,801 | 0 | 3 | $4.5M |
| High Wind | 2,277 | 0 | 1 | $35.0K |
| Winter Weather | 2,125 | 20 | 50 | $133.0K |
| Flood | 1,523 | 5 | 0 | $196.2M |
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database State-level aggregated data, 2015-2025
NFIP Flood Insurance Claims
Total Claims
2
Total Paid
$100.0K
Avg Per Claim
$50.0K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Very Low
Score: 19.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$8.1M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Winter Weather Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Low
Tornado Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Strong Wind Very Low
Landslide Very Low
Riverine Flooding Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Lightning Very Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (NRI) Ratings reflect relative scores among all US counties. Data: hazards.fema.gov/nri
The model's sharpest exposure here: Ice Storm
Ice storms load power lines and tree limbs with accumulating freezing rain until they fail. The characteristic cost is infrastructure and multi-day power loss across a wide area rather than structural damage to buildings, which is why their consequences often outlast the weather that caused them.
Worth noting for Aurora County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Ice Storm carries the highest modeled rating (Relatively Moderate), while the county's declaration history is led by Flood. That is not a contradiction, the two measure genuinely different things. Declarations record federal ACTION, which requires damage costly enough to exceed state and local capacity; the Risk Index models EXPECTED annual loss across all 18 hazards whether or not any declaration ever followed. A hazard can be the county's largest modeled exposure and never once have driven a declaration.
National Risk Index ratings are modeled estimates of expected annual loss, not predictions of what will happen in any given year.
Data-matched county comparisons
Aurora County's closest FEMA peer: Thurston County, NE
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Aurora County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Aurora County shows 23 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Aurora County: 20 of 23 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Aurora County: NRI composite 19.6 (Very Low).
How these peers are chosen
Cohort: Published U.S. county equivalents outside the source state or territory. Each metric keeps six ETL candidates; three unique destinations are shown after de-duplicating across axes. Declaration-volume ranking combines count and Major-disaster share and prefers a different leading incident type; Major-share ranks the Major fraction adjusted for volume; NRI ranks the modeled composite score only.
Retained FEMA snapshot feed for Aurora County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Aurora County: nearest out-of-state National Risk Index composite and nearest FEMA declaration count (floor ≥5 records). Record similarity only, not a forecast of the next hazard.
Similar NRI composite
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA NRI score. This county: 19.6 (Very Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 23. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 23 FEMA declarations, Aurora County sits in the high-volume declaration band - see how that count ranks against other U.S. counties.
More PlainHazard guides
- Most disaster-prone counties - U.S. counties ranked by FEMA declaration totals.
- Understanding disaster data - declarations vs storm events vs NRI scores.
- Preparing for natural disasters - household checklist (not county-specific advice).
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common disaster type in Aurora County?
The most common disaster type in Aurora County is Flood, with 9 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (8), Biological (2), Snowstorm (2).
How does Aurora County's FEMA declaration record compare with the South Dakota average?
FEMA lists 23 declaration records for Aurora County. That is 21% above the South Dakota county mean of 19.0. Its count is also 11% above the national county mean of 20.7. A larger declaration history records more federal actions; it is not a forecast of the county's next hazard.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Aurora County received?
Aurora County has received 20 major disaster declarations, representing 87% of all 23 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Aurora County filed?
Aurora County has 2 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $100.0K in payments, with an average of $50.0K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Aurora County?
No. In Aurora County, Ice Storm has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Cold Wave leads Expected Annual Loss at about $3.5M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Aurora County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Aurora County was 2020, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1976 to 2024.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Aurora County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Aurora County, South Dakota has an overall risk score of 19.6 out of 100 (Very Low). On social vulnerability the county rates Relatively Low; on community resilience, Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $8.1M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Aurora County?
FEMA's NRI data points to Aurora County is Ice Storm (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Moderate) and Cold Wave (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts ice storm here at roughly once every 2 years, drawn from 32 historical events on record. These scores are based on FEMA's analysis of historical event frequency, exposed assets, and community vulnerability.
Data Sources & Methodology
Disaster declaration data comes from the FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 API, which includes all federally declared disasters, emergencies, and fire management assistance grants.
Storm event data is sourced from the NOAA Storm Events Database (2015-2025), which tracks significant weather events including thunderstorms, tornadoes, floods, and winter storms.
Flood insurance data comes from the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA claims dataset.
This data is provided for informational purposes only. FEMA disaster declarations represent federal response actions and may not capture all local emergencies or weather events.
FEMA OpenFEMA declarations + NRI for Aurora County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · South Dakota profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events