Transportation

Geography

Historical Background

Identified Hazards

Issues

Maps

Oneida County has one incorporated community: Malad City (pop. 2,158). The total population for the county in 2000 was 4,125. That is an increase of 18% since 1990.

Transportation

Geography

Land Area: 1,202 square miles

Historical Background

Established January 22, 1864 with its county seat at Soda Springs. In 1866 it was moved to Malad City, because of its growth and its location on the stagecoach line and freight road between Corinne, Utah, and the mines in Butte, Montana. Named for Lake Oneida, New York, the area from which most of the early settlers had emigrated.

Pestilence - Summer 1990

Event Summary:   Over 100,000 acres in southeastern Idaho were infested with Mormon crickets and grasshoppers

County Summary: Crops were damaged by Mormon crickets and grasshoppers

Earthquake - Pocatello Valley Earthquake - March 27, 1975

Event Summary:    $1,000,000.00 - A Magnitude 6.3 earthquake shook the Pocatello Valley along the Idaho-Utah border.  The quake was felt over a 400 square mile area.  Farmhouses in the Pocatello Valley were hard hit by the earthquake, with many shifted off of their foundations, with broken windows and chimneys.  This earthquake was the largest in the continental US since the February 1971 San Fernando earthquake.

County Summary:  Malad City was hardest hit by the quake; nearly 2/3 of the homes and businesses had some damage, such as broken windows,  toppled chimneys and parapets, cracked walls and foundations.  Minor injuries were reported by falling debris.  Damages included 520 homes ($653,600), 7 of which were destroyed; $2,500 damages to inventories; $91,000 in damages to farm buildings.  FEMA approved 66 home and business loans totaling $548,000 for repair and reconstruction.  26 applications for Red Cross aid were received.  Malad City was declared a disaster area.

USGS "The Pocatello Valley, Idaho, Earthquake"; Idaho State Journal 3/28/75; The Idaho Statesman 3/29/75,

12/4/77; Earthquake Information Bulletin May-June 1975; Earthquake History of the US

Earthquake - April 15, 1973

Event Summary:    Earthquake in Malad City

County Summary: A Magnitude 4.7 earthquake shook Malad City; no damage or injury reported

The Idaho Statesman 4/15/73

Flood - February 10-14, 1962

Event Summary:    $15,000,000.00 - Floods were touched off when prolonged rain and warm temperatures combined to melt mountain snow packs and send the runoff rushing into the lowlands faster than the still frozen ground could absorb.  A federal disaster declaration was issued  2/14/62 after extensive flooding along the Portneuf River and its tributaries, The Snake and Teton Rivers, inundating an area from Sugar City to Malad and from Aberdeen to Soda Springs.  Throughout the area, numerous earthen dams and levees collapsed, roads were closed, bridges damaged, houses and businesses flooded.  National Guard and Army Corps of Engineers responded to the areas in hopes of stopping additional flooding.  Damage was estimated at more than $15 million.  Damage to over 1500 homes was reported.

County Summary: $180,000.00 - 40 homes affected by the floods, numerous roads were damaged.

The Idaho Statesman  18Feb 62

Pestilence - 1870

Event Summary:  Grasshopper and cricket infestation

County Summary: Grasshopper and cricket invasion; damaged crops; "made farming almost impossible"

Identified Hazards ( Most likely to occur & greatest impact)

Other Issues