Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Etowah County, AL

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 65.0 Relatively High

103,105
Population
26
Departments
55
Stations
33
Census Tracts

Natural Hazard Loss Profile

Expected annual loss across the 18 natural hazards in FEMA's National Risk Index. Life safety is expressed in fatality-equivalents, combining expected deaths and injuries. Property loss counts building damage only, separate from agriculture.

Natural Hazard Life Safety
1.18
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
13th highest of 67
Life Safety per 100k
1.15
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
23rd highest of 67
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$33.7M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
12th highest of 67
Property Loss per Resident
$327
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
27th highest of 67

These figures cover natural hazards only. Structure fire, EMS, and motor vehicle incidents are not included in the National Risk Index and are not counted here, so this is not an all-cause life safety measure. For Etowah County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 59% of the life-safety total.

Etowah County carries an expected 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $33.7M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 67 Alabama counties. Nationally, Etowah County ranks 496th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1465th for life safety per 100k residents, 536th for property loss, and 1652nd for property loss per resident. Computed from census tract data covering every resident, independent of fire department boundaries.

Add fire mortality, cause, and loss

Natural hazard exposure is one half of the picture. The other half is what your departments run on: fire deaths and injuries, cause of ignition, dollar loss per incident. That comes from NERIS incident reporting, and it grows as departments serving Etowah County enroll. Our Regional tier brings it together across your jurisdiction, with participating departments, alongside response time analytics, cross-department benchmarking, and coverage gap analysis.

Talk to us about Etowah County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

67%
32%
Property (buildings): $33.7M (67.1%)
Life safety: $16.2M (32.3%)
Agriculture: $283K (0.6%)

Total expected annual loss: $50,264,019 per year. Life safety is shown here in dollars, at FEMA's $13.7M value of statistical life, so the three shares sum to the total.

Hazards Ranked Two Ways

The hazard that threatens people is often not the hazard that destroys buildings. Both columns cover the same 18 hazards over the same year.

By life-safety loss ($/yr)

Tornado
$9.6M
Cold Wave
$2.2M
Strong Wind
$1.9M
Heat Wave
$997K
Earthquake
$885K
Lightning
$466K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$22.8M
Tornado
$7.7M
Earthquake
$2.2M
Hurricane
$309K
Hail
$263K
Strong Wind
$261K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Etowah County. Gray tracts have no modeled loss or no resident population. Per-resident figures on this map use the National Risk Index 2020 tract population.

Fire Service Profile

19%
73%
Career: 8% (2)
Combination: 19% (5)
Volunteer: 73% (19)
Residents per Station
1,875
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
53.3
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 26 departments registered in NERIS Public for Etowah County, AL. Departments that have not registered are not counted. Station coverage divides census population by registered stations; department service areas overlap, so their populations are not summed.

Department Rankings

Fire and EMS departments serving Etowah County. Click column headers to sort.

NRI Rating is from FEMA's National Risk Index, which measures community risk across 18 natural hazards using expected annual losses, social vulnerability, and community resilience. Life-Safety Loss uses FEMA's Value of Statistical Life ($13.7M per expected fatality) to estimate annual risk to human life.

Department boundaries and station counts are self-reported through NERIS Public and may not reflect current service areas. Population and Life-Safety Loss reflect each department's full jurisdiction. County-level risk metrics are computed from census tract data and are not affected by boundary accuracy. See full methodology.

Showing 26 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Gadsden Fire Department 36,390 $5.9M Relatively High 14
Renfroe Volunteer Fire Department 30,563 $4.4M Relatively High 2
Southside Fire Department 20,557 $3.2M Relatively High 2
Egypt Volunteer Fire Department 17,797 $3.1M Relatively High 2
Boaz Fire & Rescue 14,062 $2.8M Relatively High 2
Attalla Fire & Rescue 16,541 $2.7M Relatively High 5
Sand Valley Volunteer Fire Department 16,238 $2.6M Relatively High 1
Rainbow City Fire Department 13,248 $2.1M Relatively High 4
Glencoe Fire Department 12,760 $2.0M Relatively High 0
Aroney Fire Protection Authority 11,951 $2.0M Relatively High 2
Mount Hebron Volunteer Fire Department 8,235 $1.8M Relatively High 1
New Union Volunteer Fire Department 10,301 $1.6M Relatively High 2
Mountainboro Volunteer Fire Department 9,530 $1.5M Relatively High 2
Gallant Volunteer Fire Department 7,883 $1.3M Relatively High 2
Reece City Volunteer Fire Department 7,720 $1.2M Relatively High 1
Steele Volunteer Fire Department 8,244 $1.1M Relatively High 2
Coates Bend Volunteer Fire Department 7,243 $1.0M Relatively Moderate 1
Highland Volunteer Fire Deaprtment 6,514 $1.0M Relatively High 1
Lookout Mountain Volunteer Fire Department 6,514 $1.0M Relatively High 1
Walnut Grove Volunteer Fire Department 5,140 $828.2K Very High 1
Altoona Fire Department 5,161 $750.3K Relatively High 1
Keener Volunteer Fire Department 4,477 $720.8K Relatively Low 1
Tidmore Bend Volunteer Fire Department 5,054 $673.6K Relatively High 1
Ballplay 1 Volunteer Fire 3,544 $569.5K Relatively Moderate 1
Ballplay Bend Fire Department 3,544 $569.5K Relatively Moderate 2
Black Creek Volunteer Fire Department 2,653 $437.3K Relatively Low 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

16.9%
Poverty Rate
19.7%
Age 65+
18.9%
Disability Rate
11.4%
Uninsured
57.5%
Pre-1980 Housing
9.2%
Mobile Homes
17.2%
Vacancy Rate
0.6%
Wood Heat
$55,808
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

7
Last 10 Years
17
Last 25 Years
Severe Storm
Most Frequent

Response-level intelligence for your region

Our Regional tier gives county fire authorities and state fire marshals rollup dashboards across all departments in your jurisdiction: response time analytics, cross-department benchmarking, and coverage gap analysis.

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