FEMA Records
17
Below median
South Dakota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Charles Mix County, SD
17 FEMA disaster declarations (1976-2024), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 17
- FEMA declarations
- 14
- Major disasters
- 49
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Charles Mix County has a nationally busy FEMA history: 17 declarations, more than 32% of counties in this registry. But the state comparison tempers that reading: the total is 11% below the South Dakota county mean. FEMA's separate National Risk Index places the county safer than 49%; that score models loss and vulnerability rather than counting declarations.
- Safer than 49%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 17
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 11
- 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 46023 · Charles Mix County 17 declarations · rank 2126/3,266
DECL-MID · MAJOR-HEAVY · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-BELOW
- DECL-MID 17
- MAJOR-HEAVY 82%
- RANK-LOWER #2,126
- PHOTO-FINISH Curry
- NRI-LOW 49
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-BELOW -11%
Nearest declaration peer: Curry, OR (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · South Dakota state profile
Charles Mix County among counties with fewer federal records
FEMA declaration records among Charles Mix County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Charles Mix · this county 17
Charles Mix · this county
17 declarations
- Curry · near 17
Curry · near
17 declarations
- Murray · near 17
Murray · near
17 declarations
- Washington · near 17
Washington · near
17 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Charles Mix County carries 17 FEMA declaration records, ranked 2126 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
Charles Mix County versus quieter counties in this dataset
Charles Mix County among lower-declaration counties nationally
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Charles Mix County
17 32nd percentile higher than 32% 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
Charles Mix County's FEMA Risk Index score
What does Charles Mix County's hazard record show?
FEMA National Risk Index
FEMA's data shows an elevated National Risk Index composite of 48.5/100 for this county (Relatively Low rating). Expected Annual Loss comes in at Very Low (roughly $13.2M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability (Relatively High) and community resilience (Relatively Moderate) both factor into how that raw exposure plays out on the ground. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Cold Wave carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at an average of 5.8 times per year here, based on 111 historical events on record.
Reading the federal records together
This county has a small entry in FEMA's NFIP paid-claims table: 11 claims and $504.3K 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.
Start with the state benchmark: a South Dakota county averages 19.0 federal declaration records, while Charles Mix County has 17. The gap is 11% below that mean. Fewer entries indicate a quieter history of recorded federal actions, not immunity from a hazard and not a prediction about what happens next.
59 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Charles Mix 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) Moderate
12/30
17 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (0.8x national county average)
County Disaster Density Moderate
11/25
17 declarations (0.9x state county average of 19)
Major Disaster Share Very High
21/25
14 of 17 declarations are major disasters (82%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
15/20
6 different disaster types declared in Charles Mix County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Charles Mix 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
82%
Mostly major
NRI risk score
49
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Charles Mix 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5.8 times per year |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 26 modeled event-days per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively Moderate | an average of 15 times per year |
| Wildfire | Relatively Low | roughly once every 1,284 years |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 2 years |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Low | an average of 1.7 times per year |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 2.6 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively Low | an average of 37 times per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 2,342 years |
| Heat Wave | Very Low | 6.3 modeled event-days per year |
| Landslide | Very Low | roughly once every 5 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 7
Severe Storm 5
Biological 2
Coastal Storm 1
Snowstorm 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Charles Mix County's record, 41% 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 - 14 82.4%
of all 17 declarations
Emergency - 3 17.6%
of all 17 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 3 | |
| 2019 | 1 | |
| 2011 | 1 | |
| 2010 | 1 | |
| 2008 | 1 | |
| 2006 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 2 | |
| 1996 | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1 | |
| 1984 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 17 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 17 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 1774 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2008-07-09 |
| 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 |
| 999 | SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES & FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 1993-07-19 |
| 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 Charles Mix 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
11
Total Paid
$504.3K
Avg Per Claim
$45.8K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 48.5/100
Expected Annual Loss
Very Low
$13.2M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively High
Community Resilience
Relatively Moderate
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Drought Relatively Moderate
Winter Weather Relatively Moderate
Wildfire Relatively Low
Hail Relatively Moderate
Ice Storm Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Low
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Lightning Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Heat Wave Very Low
Landslide 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: Cold Wave
Cold Wave measures exposure to extreme cold rather than to snow. Its harm is concentrated in health effects, burst infrastructure and energy demand spikes, and it falls hardest where the building stock and the grid were not built with sustained cold in mind.
Worth noting for Charles Mix County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Cold Wave 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
Charles Mix County's closest FEMA peer: Clark County, WA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Charles Mix County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Charles Mix County shows 17 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Charles Mix County: 14 of 17 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Charles Mix County: NRI composite 48.5 (Relatively 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 Charles Mix County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Charles Mix 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: 48.5 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 17. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Most disaster-prone counties
With 17 FEMA declarations, Charles Mix 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 Charles Mix County?
The most common disaster type in Charles Mix County is Flood, with 7 declarations. Other disaster types include Severe Storm (5), Biological (2), Coastal Storm (1).
How does Charles Mix County's FEMA declaration record compare with the South Dakota average?
The typical South Dakota county has 19.0 FEMA declaration records; Charles Mix County has 17, or 11% fewer. Against the national county mean of 20.7, this county's total is 18% lower. The comparison is historical and says nothing about the probability of a future event.
How many major FEMA disaster declarations has Charles Mix County received?
Charles Mix County has received 14 major disaster declarations, representing 82% of all 17 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Charles Mix County filed?
Charles Mix County has 11 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $504.3K in payments, with an average of $45.8K per claim.
What was the worst year for disasters in Charles Mix County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Charles Mix 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 Charles Mix County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Charles Mix County, South Dakota has an overall risk score of 48.5 out of 100 (Relatively Low). Social vulnerability here rates Relatively High, while community resilience comes in at Relatively Moderate. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Very Low, representing $13.2M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Charles Mix County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Charles Mix County is Cold Wave (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Drought (Relatively Moderate) and Winter Weather (Relatively Moderate). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts cold wave here at an average of 5.8 times per year, drawn from 111 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 Charles Mix County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · South Dakota profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events