Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Desha County, AR

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 67.4 Relatively High

10,786
Population
12
Departments
25
Stations
5
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
0.14
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
64th highest of 75
Life Safety per 100k
1.29
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
51st highest of 75
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$4.0M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
66th highest of 75
Property Loss per Resident
$373
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
42nd highest of 75

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 Desha County, the largest single contributor is Earthquake, 34% of the life-safety total.

Desha County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $4.0M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 75 Arkansas counties. Nationally, Desha County ranks 2345th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1283rd for life safety per 100k residents, 2458th for property loss, and 1361st 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 Desha 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 Desha County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

61%
29%
10%
Property (buildings): $4.0M (61.4%)
Life safety: $1.9M (29.0%)
Agriculture: $625K (9.6%)

Total expected annual loss: $6,544,699 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.

Agriculture is 10% of expected annual loss in Desha County, so total loss overstates property loss here. The property figure above counts building loss only.

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)

Earthquake
$651K
Heat Wave
$434K
Tornado
$379K
Cold Wave
$199K
Strong Wind
$144K
Lightning
$33K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$2.3M
Earthquake
$888K
Tornado
$539K
Strong Wind
$116K
Hurricane
$75K
Hail
$64K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Desha 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

8%
92%
Combination: 8% (1)
Volunteer: 92% (11)
Residents per Station
431
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
231.8
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 12 departments registered in NERIS Public for Desha County, AR. 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 Desha 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 12 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Bolivar County Volunteer Fire Department 27,144 $4.6M Very High 8
Dumas Fire Department 9,913 $1.9M Relatively High 3
Halley Volunteer Fire Department 9,035 $1.6M Relatively High 1
Winchester Fire Department 8,744 $1.6M Relatively High 1
Kelso-Rohwer Fire Department 6,851 $1.3M Relatively High 1
Dermott Volunteer Fire Department 6,993 $1.3M Very High 2
Mcgehee Fire Department 4,476 $757.3K Relatively Moderate 2
Tillar Volunteer Fire Department 3,847 $689.7K Relatively High 2
Arkansas City Volunteer Fire Department 4,077 $688.4K Relatively High 1
Gillett Volunteer Fire Department 2,426 $525.9K Relatively High 1
Tichnor Volunteer Fire Department 2,426 $525.9K Relatively High 1
Watson Area Volunteer Fire Department 2,426 $525.9K Relatively High 2
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

28.3%
Poverty Rate
20.1%
Age 65+
22.2%
Disability Rate
7.7%
Uninsured
57.1%
Pre-1980 Housing
12.4%
Mobile Homes
20.5%
Vacancy Rate
0.0%
Wood Heat
$37,627
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

11
Last 10 Years
14
Last 25 Years
Flood
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.

Explore the Regional Tier See the Response Demo