FEMA DR-4938-SD Declares Major Disaster for South Dakota Severe Storms
FEMA issued declaration DR-4938-SD, a Major Disaster declaration. A Major Disaster Declaration is FEMA's broadest category. It unlocks the full range of federal recovery programs — Public Assistance, and potentially Individual Assistance and Hazard Mitigation — once a disaster overwhelms state and local capacity. Major Disaster declarations make up 25% of the 84 FEMA disaster declarations Areazine has tracked (21 of them). Areazine has reported 4 FEMA disaster declarations for South Dakota.
Read this FEMA declaration in 30 seconds
- Declaration type
- Major Disaster
- Declaration code
- DR-4938-SD
- State
- South Dakota
- Share of archive
- 25% of 84 declarations
- Source
- FEMA
- Published
- September 1, 2026
A Major Disaster Declaration is FEMA's broadest category. It unlocks the full range of federal recovery programs — Public Assistance, and potentially Individual Assistance and Hazard Mitigation — once a disaster overwhelms state and local capacity.
Areazine has reported 4 FEMA disaster declarations for South Dakota.
Record status: a point-in-time snapshot of the FEMA declaration. Program activations and designated-area lists can be amended after publication, so check FEMA's own declaration page for the current, authoritative scope.
What Happened
FEMA declared DR-4938-SD, a major disaster for South Dakota, due to severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes, and flooding. The incident occurred from June 28 to July 3, 2026, with the declaration issued on September 1, 2026.
Affected Areas
The declaration covers 10 designated areas: Stanley County, Bennett County, Hughes County, Hand County, Lower Brule Indian Reservation, Buffalo County, Day County, Crow Creek Indian Reservation, Beadle County, and Hyde County.
Federal Assistance Available
Public Assistance (PA) has been declared. Individual Assistance (IA), Individual and Household Program (IH), and Hazard Mitigation (HM) programs were not declared.
What You Should Do
Local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations in designated areas may apply for Public Assistance. Contact FEMA for registration and eligibility details.
Source
FEMA Disaster Declaration DR-4938-SD. Data from FEMA.gov.
Original source: FEMA Official Notice ↗
Related Disasters
All Disasters →Nationwide notices with similar length or severity timing 4
Beyond this FEMA disaster declaration's own category, Areazine surfaces two nationwide peer sets: length-matched and severity/date-matched notices from elsewhere in the archive, distinct from the same-feed Related list above.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (952 characters here).
Questions & Answers
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