klepZ HighWater

Flood history / South Dakota / ZIP 57234

ZIP 57234
Hamlin County, SD

Paid claims1151979–2020
Total paid$1.5M$13K average
Heaviest year201136 claims
Outside high-risk zone84%of claims with a rated zone

Property owners in ZIP 57234 have been paid $1.5M on 115 National Flood Insurance Program claims between 1979 and 2020 — an average of $13K a claim, across 11 separate years in which someone here filed and was paid.

The heaviest year

2011 is the heaviest year on file: 36 paid claims, 31.3% of the ZIP's total. That one year accounts for more than a quarter of the ZIP's entire record. The largest named event in the record is Severe flooding, with 4 claims.

5 of those claims — 4.3% — were filed since 2017. The bulk of this ZIP's record is older than that.

Named eventPaid claimsShare of record
Severe flooding43.5%
Late spring storms10.9%

Where the claims sat on the map

Of the 99 claims here that record a rated flood zone, 83 — 83.8% — were on properties rated outside the mapped high-risk area, in a B, C or X zone. Most of the paid flooding in this ZIP happened to properties the maps did not treat as high risk. Flood insurance is not required outside the high-risk zone, and most properties there do not carry it — so these counts come from the minority who did.

The water near this ZIP

The closest gauges publishing official flood thresholds are Big Sioux River near Estelline (3.1 mi), Big Sioux River at Lake Poinsett Inlet/Outlet (6.6 mi) and Big Sioux River near Bruce (9.9 mi). A gauge describes one point on one river — it will not see street drainage, sewer backup, storm surge or flash flooding.

Read current gauge conditions for 57234 →

What this does not say

These are paid National Flood Insurance Program claims, nothing more. They count insured properties whose owners filed and were paid, so they are a floor on how often this ZIP has flooded — never a measure of how likely it is to flood next. Uninsured flooding leaves no trace here at all.

The figures are aggregates published by FEMA. No individual claim, address or policyholder appears on this page or in the data behind it. Nothing here is a forecast, a warning, or advice about insurance.

Other South Dakota ZIP codes on file

  • 57201 Codington County · 462 claims
  • 57401 Brown County · 425 claims
  • 57049 Union County · 362 claims
  • 57273 Day County · 228 claims
  • 57042 Lake County · 226 claims
  • 57212 Brookings County · 120 claims
  • 57532 Stanley County · 118 claims
  • 57105 Minnehaha County · 109 claims

All South Dakota ZIP codes →