This disaster also heavily impacted South Dakota’s agricultural and livestock community. Due to ice and wind damage to utility poles and lines, electrical services to some areas were interrupted. Numerous bridges and roads were impacted as well.

The Jasper Fire was located in Custer County in the Southwest Black Hills. It was the largest fire to occur in the Black Hills in at least a century. The fire started at about 2:30 pm on August 24, 2000, and was contained on September 8, 2000. The cause of the fire was arson. The weather was very hot and dry, vegetation moisture was at record low levels and atmospheric conditions were very unstable. The conditions caused extreme fire behavior and the fire spread rapidly. Almost immediately after ignition, the fire spread into the tops of the trees and blowing embers began causing spot fires ahead of the main fire. The fire created its own weather pattern as it burned. Lightening from the storm created by the fire was a big concern. The fire completely blackened some areas, leaving scorched, dead trees and ash-covered ground in its wake. Other areas experienced only a light ground burn. Large areas within the fire perimeter remain green, either lightly burned or completely undamaged. The fire blocked highways. The fire threatened two towns, Hill City (Population 650) and Custer (Population 1740). The towns were considered for evacuation, but did not have to be evacuated. Fire-fighting personnel evacuated houses within three miles of the fire. The fire threatened more than 100 houses in the unincorporated community of Pass Creek. It also burned acreage at the Jewel Cave National Monument.

At approximately 8:40 pm, following a series of thunderstorm warnings and numerous funnel sightings in the area, a violent tornado struck the town of Spencer, South Dakota, which lies approximately 45 miles west-northwest of Sioux Falls in extreme western McCook County. The tornado, rated F4 on the Fujita Tornado Intensity Scale, killed 6 people, injured more than one-third of the town’s 320 residents, and destroyed most of the town’s 190 buildings, including all public and numerous private facilities. An assisted living center was also destroyed. The center had no basement, which offered no protection from the tornado. In fact, most of the 6 fatalities were residents of the center. Only 12 structures were left standing in the entire town of Spencer.

During the storm, electrical service was out. Survivors reported that the warning siren system lost power prior to the touchdown of the tornado.

In addition to the town of Spencer, some farms in Hanson and McCook Counties were heavily damaged. Total damage was estimated at $18 million. On June 1, 1998, the President declared disasters in McCook and Hanson Counties as a result of the tornadoes.

On June 3, 1998, this disaster declaration was expanded to include Day, Clark, Marshall, and Spink Counties in northeastern South Dakota. Severe storms had struck that portion of the state beginning on April 25, 1998, and had resulted in damage and more flooding.

Earthquake -- 9:08am (MST) -- Intensity V -- NW of Mt. Rushmore (3.7 Richter) Felt by many people who noticed typical earthquake ground movement.

Both of the above quakes were centered about 5Km below the surface. Neither quake can be definitely associated with any mapped fault, but both are near known or postulated faults. The Black Hills, being a structural dome, is full of faults and joints dating to the uplift some 50 million years ago. Very little strain now accumulates along them, so only small, rare earthquakes have occurred in the region during historic times. Work by several geologists during the last decade or so have shown that much of the region has widely spaced joints and faults breaking the earth's crust into blocks, each township size in area. The good news is that there is very little strain to release as earthquakes in South Dakota. In the south central part of the state, the SD Geologic Survey have mapped some of these blocks and have identified individual block-bounding faults that have moved 40 feet or more vertically and a few hundred s of feet horizontally in very small increments during the last 50 million years. The Nebraska quake is probably just a little jostling between the blocks; small adjustments which occur occasionally in the region.

This storm also forced major transportation delays as portions of Interstate 90 and Interstate 29 had to be closed because of the snow accumulation on the roadway and poor visibility. One of these interstate closings caused Davison and Codington Counties to initiate their sheltering plan for travelers who could not find rooms at local motels. The storm also caused numerous cancellations and delays in school openings because of travel conditions or the lack of power. Interstate traffic was restored by early Tuesday, October 24.

The power outages also lead to several rural water system pumping stations to go off-line causing a loss of water utilities to members of rural water systems. The National Guard has been utilized to provide generators to power these pumping stations; therefore restoring water service.

Crews from electric cooperatives in South and North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska assisted local cooperatives with line repairs. In addition to the full resources of the local cooperatives affected, out of state co-operatives sent an additional 207 linemen, 49 digger trucks, 46 bucket trucks, 18 service trucks, and 31 pole trailers with fresh poles which were utilized in the repair effort.