Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Polk County, AR

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 64.2 Relatively High

19,361
Population
16
Departments
18
Stations
7
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
0.15
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
62nd highest of 75
Life Safety per 100k
0.80
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
73rd highest of 75
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$7.6M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
39th highest of 75
Property Loss per Resident
$394
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
35th 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 Polk County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 30% of the life-safety total.

Polk County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $7.6M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 75 Arkansas counties. Nationally, Polk County ranks 2243rd of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2090th for life safety per 100k residents, 1807th for property loss, and 1262nd 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 Polk 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 Polk County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

78%
22%
Property (buildings): $7.6M (77.5%)
Life safety: $2.1M (21.5%)
Agriculture: $93K (0.9%)

Total expected annual loss: $9,828,730 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
$627K
Heat Wave
$573K
Strong Wind
$267K
Cold Wave
$249K
Lightning
$198K
Inland Flooding
$64K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$4.8M
Ice Storm
$733K
Tornado
$723K
Hail
$545K
Wildfire
$310K
Strong Wind
$195K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Polk 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

75%
19%
Combination: 6% (1)
Volunteer: 75% (12)
Unreported: 19% (3)
Residents per Station
1,076
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
93.0
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 16 departments registered in NERIS Public for Polk 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 Polk 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 16 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Cherry Hill Rural Volunteer Fire Department #7 11,553 $2.1M Relatively High 1
Cherry Hill Volunteer Fire Department 8,586 $1.7M Very High 1
Potter Rural Volunteer 11,079 $1.2M Relatively Moderate 1
Acorn Rural Volunteer Fire Department 8,932 $1.1M Relatively High 1
Dallas Valley Rural Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. 9,139 $1.1M Relatively High 1
Mena Fire Department 8,529 $970.3K Relatively Moderate 5
Shady Fire And Rescue District #10 8,379 $927.0K Relatively High 1
Shady Grove Fire & Rescue 8,112 $893.5K Relatively Moderate 1
Hatfield Fire & Rescue 6,172 $718.4K Very High 1
Wickes Vol #2 6,242 $628.4K Very High 0
Rocky Rural Volunteer #5 Fire Department 5,847 $619.8K Relatively High 0
Cove Rural Volunteer Fire Department 4,757 $475.0K Relatively High 1
Big Fork Fire Department #9 3,622 $451.9K Very High 1
Board Camp Rural Volunteer Fire Department 3,622 $451.9K Very High 1
Vandervoort Rural Volunteer Fire Department #14 4,660 $428.2K Relatively Moderate 1
Grannis Rural Volunteer #1 Fire Department 2,453 $219.7K Relatively Moderate 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

15.9%
Poverty Rate
22.7%
Age 65+
21.7%
Disability Rate
9.0%
Uninsured
40.9%
Pre-1980 Housing
17.8%
Mobile Homes
18.1%
Vacancy Rate
9.9%
Wood Heat
$51,776
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

6
Last 10 Years
15
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.

Explore the Regional Tier See the Response Demo