FEMA Records
21
Above median
South Dakota · FEMA + NOAA + National Risk Index
Pennington County, SD
21 FEMA disaster declarations (1965-2026), with a FEMA National Risk Index rating of Relatively Low. Most common hazard: Flood.
- 21
- FEMA declarations
- 13
- Major disasters
- 79
- NRI risk · Relatively Low
- Flood
- Top hazard
The verdict
Two federal records point in the busier direction for Pennington County. Its 21 FEMA declarations are 11% above the South Dakota county mean and exceed the count for 52% of the 3,266 counties in this registry. Separately, FEMA's National Risk Index places it in the riskiest 21%, based on modeled expected annual loss, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
- Riskiest 21%
- of U.S. counties for FEMA National Risk Index score
- Relatively Low
- FEMA National Risk Index rating
- 21
- FEMA declarations vs 21 national county avg
- 135
- NFIP flood insurance claims filed
FEMA's National Risk Index and its declaration registry are separate measures. This county's registry includes Fire Management Assistance (FM) records, which are not presidential disaster declarations, alongside Major Disaster (DR) and Emergency (EM) records.
FEMA OpenFEMA declaration desk
County FIPS 46103 · Pennington County 21 declarations · rank 1436/3,266
DECL-HEAVY · MAJOR-MID · RANK-LOWER · PHOTO-FINISH · NRI-LOW · ACT-HIGH · TYPE-LEAD · VS-ST-ABOVE
- DECL-HEAVY 21
- MAJOR-MID 62%
- RANK-LOWER #1,436
- PHOTO-FINISH Montgomery
- NRI-LOW 79
- ACT-HIGH High
- TYPE-LEAD Flood
- VS-ST-ABOVE +11%
Nearest declaration peer: Montgomery, IN (0 declaration gap)
FEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 filing stamps for this county register. Read with this county → · South Dakota state profile
Pennington County in the declaration-count neighbourhood
FEMA declaration records among Pennington County and nearest peers by total count
- Los Angeles · largest
Los Angeles · largest
88 declarations
- Atascosa · near 21
Atascosa · near
21 declarations
- Mason · near 21
Mason · near
21 declarations
- Montgomery · near 21
Montgomery · near
21 declarations
- Pennington · this county 21
Pennington · this county
21 declarations
- Ujelang · smallest 1
Ujelang · smallest
1 declarations
What this shows Pennington County carries 21 FEMA declaration records, ranked 1436 of 3,266 counties in this registry.
How Pennington County's FEMA declaration count compares nationally
Pennington County vs. all counties in this dataset
FEMA disaster declarations, all-time · Pennington County
21 Top 48% higher than 52% 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
Pennington County's FEMA Risk Index score
Which hazard drives modeled loss here?
FEMA's modeled annual dollar loss for Pennington County is led by Riverine Flooding (about $17.1M Expected Annual Loss, Historical Loss Ratio Relatively Low), while Wildfire 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 Pennington County's hazard record show?
Reading the federal records together
The NFIP claims register shows a middle-volume loss record here: 135 paid claims, totaling $555.6K. PlainHazard uses 50-499 claims for this descriptive band; FEMA does not publish it as a safety or coverage category. The $4.1K average describes payments on recorded claims only, leaving uninsured damage and properties without a claim outside the measure.
The declaration register points in the busier direction. Pennington County's 21 federal records stand 11% 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.
FEMA National Risk Index
This county sits among the highest-risk counties nationally on FEMA's National Risk Index, a composite score of 78.6/100 (Relatively Low). Expected Annual Loss is rated Relatively Low (roughly $40.8M in annualized losses). Social vulnerability reads Relatively Low and community resilience Relatively High, both critical modifiers of realized harm here. Among the 18 modeled hazards, Wildfire carries the county's highest rating, a mid-range Relatively Moderate. FEMA's modeled frequency puts that hazard at roughly once every 225 years here.
62 /100
Historical Activity Index
High historical activity
Pennington 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
15/30
21 OpenFEMA declarations, full ingest window (1.0x national county average)
County Disaster Density High
14/25
21 declarations (1.1x state county average of 19)
Major Disaster Share High
15/25
13 of 21 declarations are major disasters (62%)
Hazard Diversity Very High
18/20
7 different disaster types declared in Pennington County
FEMA NRI 8-hazard radar - Pennington 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
62%
Major-heavy
NRI risk score
79
Relatively Low
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Per-county per-hazard ratings, December 2025 release
How often does each hazard strike Pennington 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | roughly once every 225 years |
| Hail | Relatively High | an average of 5.8 times per year |
| Winter Weather | Relatively High | an average of 17 times per year |
| Lightning | Relatively High | an average of 40 times per year |
| Cold Wave | Relatively Moderate | an average of 5 times per year |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | an average of 1.7 times per year |
| Ice Storm | Relatively High | roughly once every 8 years |
| Riverine Flooding | Relatively Moderate | an average of 2.1 times per year |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | roughly once every 2 years |
| Heat Wave | Relatively Low | 0.9 modeled event-days per year |
| Earthquake | Very Low | roughly once every 1,887 years |
| Strong Wind | Relatively Low | an average of 2.9 times per year |
| Drought | Very Low | 53 modeled event-days per year |
| Avalanche | Very Low | roughly once every 100 years |
Source: FEMA National Risk Index Modeled annualized frequency; drought and heat wave use event-days/year, December 2025 release
Disaster Types
Flood 6
Fire 5
Severe Storm 5
Biological 2
Straight-Line Winds 1
Coastal Storm 1
Drought 1
What Flood declarations mean here
Flood is the most frequent declaration type on Pennington County's record, 29% 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 - 13 61.9%
of all 21 declarations
Fire Management - 5 23.8%
of all 21 declarations
Emergency - 3 14.3%
of all 21 declarations
FEMA Declarations Timeline
| Year | Declarations | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 1 | |
| 2022 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 1 | |
| 2020 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 2 | |
| 2017 | 1 | |
| 2014 | 1 | |
| 2005 | 2 | |
| 2004 | 1 | |
| 2002 | 1 | |
| 2000 | 1 | |
| 1997 | 3 | |
| 1995 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 1 | |
| 1972 | 1 | |
Show 1 earlier declaration years
| 1965 | 1 | |
Disaster Declarations
How the 21 FEMA declarations break into federal action codes (DR / EM / FM). Same DISTINCT grain as the table below.
Download these 21 declarations as CSV . FEMA source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0.
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4903 | STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS | DR | Straight-Line Winds | 2026-04-07 |
| 5418 | AUBURN FIRE | FM | Fire | 2021-10-04 |
| 5384 | SCHROEDER FIRE | FM | Fire | 2021-03-29 |
| 4527 | COVID-19 PANDEMIC | DR | Biological | 2020-04-05 |
| 3475 | COVID-19 | EM | Biological | 2020-03-13 |
| 4463 | SEVERE STORMS AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-09-23 |
| 4440 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, SNOWSTORM, AND FLOODING | DR | Flood | 2019-06-07 |
| 4298 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 2017-02-01 |
| 4155 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, SNOWSTORM, AND FLOODING | DR | Severe Storm | 2013-11-08 |
| 3234 | HURRICANE KATRINA EVACUATION | EM | Coastal Storm | 2005-09-10 |
| 2569 | SD SKYLINE #2 FIRE 7/16/05 | FM | Fire | 2005-07-16 |
| 2513 | SD - MILL ROAD WILDFIRE - 11/19/2003 | FM | Fire | 2003-11-20 |
| 2458 | SD - BATTLE CREEK FIRE - 08/18/02 | FM | Fire | 2002-08-18 |
| 1330 | SEVERE WINTER STORM, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES AND MUDSLIDES | DR | Severe Storm | 2000-05-19 |
| 1173 | SEVERE FLOODING, SEVER WINTER STORMS,HEAVY RAINS HIGH WINDS | DR | Flood | 1997-04-07 |
| 1161 | SEVERE WINTER STORM | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-02-28 |
| 1156 | SEVERE WINTER STORMS AND BLIZZARD CONDITIONS | DR | Severe Storm | 1997-01-10 |
| 1052 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1995-05-26 |
| 3015 | DROUGHT | EM | Drought | 1976-06-17 |
| 336 | HEAVY RAINS & FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1972-06-10 |
Show 1 earlier declaration records
| DR# | Title | Type | Incident | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 197 | FLOODING | DR | Flood | 1965-05-26 |
Storm Events in South Dakota
Statewide NOAA context only. PlainHazard does not currently attribute these state totals to Pennington 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
135
Total Paid
$555.6K
Avg Per Claim
$4.1K
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) OpenFEMA Claims Data
FEMA National Risk Index
Overall Risk
Relatively Low
Score: 78.6/100
Expected Annual Loss
Relatively Low
$40.8M/year
Social Vulnerability
Relatively Low
Community Resilience
Relatively High
Hazard Risk Breakdown
Wildfire Relatively Moderate
Hail Relatively High
Winter Weather Relatively High
Lightning Relatively High
Cold Wave Relatively Moderate
Landslide Relatively Low
Ice Storm Relatively High
Riverine Flooding Relatively Moderate
Tornado Relatively Low
Heat Wave Relatively Low
Earthquake Very Low
Strong Wind Relatively Low
Drought Very Low
Avalanche 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: Wildfire
Wildfire risk in the model reflects fuel, terrain, weather and how much development sits in the wildland-urban interface. It is one of the few hazards where the exposure is materially changed by land management and building choices, not only by where the county happens to be.
Worth noting for Pennington County: the model and the federal record do NOT point at the same hazard. Wildfire 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
Pennington County's closest FEMA peer: Newport News (city), VA
Comparisons use published FEMA declaration fields plus the National Risk Index composite for Pennington County. Record similarity, not a safety rating.
Closest declaration profiles
Pennington County shows 21 FEMA declarations, led by Flood.
Similar Major-disaster share
Pennington County: 13 of 21 of its declarations are Major.
Similar modeled NRI score
Pennington County: NRI composite 78.6 (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 Pennington County - capture-dated entries only.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by NRI score & FEMA declaration volume
Two PlainHazard-derived comparison paths for Pennington 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: 78.6 (Relatively Low).
Similar declaration volume
Nearest out-of-state counties by FEMA declaration count. This county: 21. NRI peers are excluded so the two link sets stay distinct.
Further reading for this county
Understanding disaster data
Pennington County's NFIP claims file (135 claims) and FEMA declaration history measure different federal records - this guide separates them from modeled NRI risk.
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 Pennington County?
The most common disaster type in Pennington County is Flood, with 6 declarations. Other disaster types include Fire (5), Severe Storm (5), Biological (2).
How does Pennington County's FEMA declaration record compare with the South Dakota average?
FEMA lists 21 declaration records for Pennington County. That is 11% above the South Dakota county mean of 19.0. Its count is also 1% 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 Pennington County received?
Pennington County has received 13 major disaster declarations, representing 62% of all 21 disaster declarations.
How many flood insurance claims has Pennington County filed?
Pennington County has 135 National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims totaling $555.6K in payments, with an average of $4.1K per claim.
Does FEMA's top risk-rated hazard match the highest Expected Annual Loss in Pennington County?
No. In Pennington County, Wildfire has the highest National Risk Index rating (Relatively Moderate), while Riverine Flooding leads Expected Annual Loss at about $17.1M. FEMA's risk score and dollar-loss model use different inputs, so the leaders often differ.
What was the worst year for disasters in Pennington County?
The most active year for disaster declarations in Pennington County was 1997, with 3 declarations. The county has FEMA disaster data spanning 1965 to 2026.
What is the FEMA National Risk Index score for Pennington County?
According to the FEMA National Risk Index, Pennington County, South Dakota has an overall risk score of 78.6 out of 100 (Relatively Low). The county's social vulnerability rating is Relatively Low and community resilience is Relatively High. The Expected Annual Loss (EAL) score is Relatively Low, representing $40.8M in annualized losses.
Which natural hazard poses the greatest risk to Pennington County?
The top hazard flagged by FEMA's NRI for Pennington County as of the latest release is Wildfire (risk rating: Relatively Moderate). Other significant hazards include Hail (Relatively High) and Winter Weather (Relatively High). FEMA's modeled event frequency puts wildfire here at roughly once every 225 years. 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 Pennington County · vintage 2026-08-25 · Methodology · South Dakota profile · Verify with FEMA OpenFEMA · Verify with NOAA Storm Events