Brule County, SD: flood risk, in FEMA's own numbers
On FEMA's National Risk Index, Brule County scores at the 28.6th percentile for flood hazard, rated "Very Low" — among the lowest flood hazard in the country. The hazard here is driven by inland rivers and flash flooding rather than the coast — FEMA's model puts a flood event here at about once every 1 years. This describes the county, not any one street — FEMA only publishes exact parcel zones through a live map service.
Who actually carries the flood insurance FEMA requires
FEMA hasn't published a residential structure count for Brule County's mapped flood zone, so a reliable mandatory-compliance percentage can't be computed here — see the data quality guide for why this gap exists for roughly a quarter of US counties. Looking beyond the mandated zone, 0% of all residential structures in Brule County carry flood coverage voluntarily or otherwise — relevant because most NFIP claims nationally come from outside the mapped SFHA.
How Brule County compares nationally
Among the 3144 US counties FEMA scores for flood hazard, Brule County ranks 2297 — 1 being the highest hazard nationally — and 2801 by population among all 3144 counties covered here, where 1 is the largest. Brule County, South Dakota is home to about 5,261 people across 817.222 square miles of land.
What to do next if you own or are buying in Brule County
0 of Brule County's 3,950 residential structures carry flood coverage of some kind, per FEMA's latest count — useful context, not a substitute for checking one parcel.
Where Brule County's figures come from
Every figure on this page traces to a named FEMA dataset, documented in the methodology guide. Brule County's compliance figure is one of the ones affected by FEMA's incomplete denominator data — the data quality guide explains what that means and how many counties it touches.