Noem, who sent Guard troops to Texas, resists using them for her own state’s flooding

Joshua Haiar, South Dakota Searchlight

After ordering National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border three times, Republican Gov. Kristi Noem is defending her decision to avoid sending troops to flood-ravaged areas in South Dakota, saying it would be “extremely expensive” and that the Guard should only be used for “a very crisis situation.”

Meanwhile, her spokesman left open the possibility that the Guard “may still be utilized.”

The South Dakota Democratic Party is urging Noem to deploy the Guard to help with relief efforts after the past week’s record rainfall and flooding.

“While the governor’s decisions to send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border may have been intended as a political statement, it is imperative that our state’s resources are directed toward addressing the immediate and pressing needs of our residents,” the party said Thursday in a news release.

Since 2021 and through May of this year, Noem spent a total of $2.7 million from the state’s Emergency and Disaster Fund on three National Guard deployments she ordered to help Texas secure its border with Mexico (two additional border deployments were federally ordered and funded). The cost of one of Noem’s deployments was partially offset by a $1 million donation from Tennessee billionaire Willis Johnson.

On Sunday, before floodwaters overwhelmed part of the McCook Lake area in southeast South Dakota that night, Noem said it was unlikely the National Guard would be used.

“At this point in time, that has not been requested, and we don’t believe it’s necessary,” she said Sunday. “We have private contractors and the community that is better prepared and believe they can do the work quickly. And so they stand ready, and we have a plan to activate if necessary, but we don’t believe at this time that that’s going to be required.”

Then, during a Tuesday press conference in Yankton, where she said “a couple dozen homes” were destroyed at McCook Lake, she defended her decision to avoid using the Guard. She said counties would have to request and pay for it.

“That’s usually, typically a very crisis situation, and the National Guard is extremely expensive,” she said.

She did not mention that she provided South Dakota’s troops to Texas for free and used South Dakota’s own Emergency and Disaster Fund — the same fund used for flood responses — to cover the costs.

 Gov. Kristi Noem answers a question about the National Guard during a June 25, 2024, press conference in Yankton where she discussed flood response efforts.

State Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck, R-Watertown, took to social media on Wednesday to criticize the governor.

“Gov Kristi Noem sent troops to Texas and billed us, South Dakota taxpayers,” he shared on X (formerly Twitter). “BUT Noem said it’s too expensive to use our guard to help our taxpayers fight the flood. Explain this hypocrisy???”

Noem’s spokesperson, Ian Fury, did not respond directly to a South Dakota Searchlight request for comment, but sent an email to numerous South Dakota media outlets defending Noem’s actions and comments. He mentioned the one known death resulting from the floods — an 87-year-old man who accidentally backed his vehicle over a washed-out road section near Harrisburg.

“While, tragically, we did see one loss of life, we know that the cooperation between the county emergency managers, first responders, volunteers, and the state departments saved countless homes and lives. The media has chosen to ignore this work and have falsely reported that the National Guard were not deployed due to costs,” Fury wrote. “This is not true.”

It’s unclear what media outlets Fury was referencing.

“In order for National Guard troops to be deployed, a request is [made] to the governor from the local government, and after discussion, no request was ever made,” he wrote. “The Guard may still be utilized to help in this disaster if a time comes when a community requests a defined mission that can be best accomplished by our soldiers.”

Fury added there are limitations on what National Guard soldiers can do.

“They legally cannot enter people’s homes or clear or repair private property,” he wrote.

Morgan Speichinger’s McCook Lake home was destroyed, and she and others are attempting to recover belongings and start the cleanup.

“There is a 100% need for the National Guard here,” Speichinger said Thursday. “How are we going to get all of that done in a short amount of time?”

Noem has deployed troops previously for in-state natural disasters, including in 2022 to help Native American reservations recover from blizzards and to help areas including her hometown of Castlewood recover from severe storms and a tornado.

In 2014, Noem’s predecessor, Republican Gov. Dennis Daugaard, deployed National Guard troops in advance to help with flood preparations in some of the same areas that are now suffering flood damage, including McCook Lake.

To cover those kinds of costs, state lawmakers annually backfill the state’s Emergency and Disaster Fund with money. During last winter’s annual legislative session, the funding legislation initially included $2.8 million. Lawmakers increased that amount to $4.3 million in anticipation of Noem’s latest deployment of Guard troops to Texas this year.

The legislation designates the funding for “costs related to any emergency or disaster” and references a separate state law’s definitions of those terms. The definitions include language defining such events as those occurring “in any part of the state,” which has led some lawmakers to question the legality of using the fund for troop deployments to Texas.

Noem has defended the costs as a response to what she calls a “warzone” at the border.