Natural hazards · Buffalo Gap

Buffalo Gap, SD natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Buffalo Gap comes from wildfires, and overall the risk is very high for a U.S. community.

FEMA National Risk Index, December 2025 · OpenFEMA claims, aid & declarations

Expected damage

How exposed is Buffalo Gap?

Very high

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Buffalo Gap to be higher than in 89% of U.S. communities, mostly from wildfires and inland flooding.

Wildfire47%Inland flooding37%Everything else17%

By hazard

What Buffalo Gap faces

Each hazard’s share of the damage FEMA expects here, and how that compares with the rest of the country.

Wildfire

47% of expected damage

Well above average · among the top 1% of U.S. places

Inland flooding

37% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 78% of U.S. places

Recorded about once a year in the area

Lower here

TornadoesHailIce stormsWinter weatherCold wavesHeat wavesEarthquakesLandslidesStrong windLightningDroughtAvalanches

Not a risk here

Coastal floodingHurricanesTsunamisVolcanic activity

Flood risk changes street by street. Check a specific address on FEMA’s flood map, and ask about flood insurance before you buy.

Flood insurance claims

Does Buffalo Gap flood?

FEMA's records show no paid flood insurance claims in Buffalo Gap.

of homes in flood zones
are insured

of all homes
are insured

No community discount. Buffalo Gap isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.

Insurance rates: Custer County.

Disasters that hit Buffalo Gap

Federal disasters declared here

None of the disasters declared for Custer County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Buffalo Gap itself in FEMA’s records.

Brought FEMA money into Buffalo GapDeclared for Custer County only

Custer County has had 15 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often fires and floods.

About these numbers

How to read this page

An average, not a forecastFEMA’s National Risk Index estimates the damage 18 kinds of natural hazards cause in a typical year, from decades of records and models. A quiet decade can follow a bad year.

Compared by rate“Higher than N%” compares yearly damage as a share of what’s here, so a big city isn’t rated riskier just for having more buildings. Buffalo Gap is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.

Money that reached townFlood claims are matched to Buffalo Gap’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to the Town of Buffalo Gap. FEMA’s model follows property values, so a place that recently lost many homes can rate lower than it feels.

Sources: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025); OpenFEMA: NFIP redacted claims, multiple-loss properties, community status book and residential penetration rates, housing assistance (owners and renters), public assistance funded projects, hazard mitigation properties and disaster declarations. Census tracts: U.S. Census Bureau.