Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Buchanan County, IA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 65.7 Relatively High

20,694
Population
9
Departments
8
Stations
6
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
0.13
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
81st highest of 99
Life Safety per 100k
0.64
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
93rd highest of 99
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$8.7M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
36th highest of 99
Property Loss per Resident
$423
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
43rd highest of 99

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 Buchanan County, the largest single contributor is Inland Flooding, 23% of the life-safety total.

Buchanan County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $8.7M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 99 Iowa counties. Nationally, Buchanan County ranks 2388th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2325th for life safety per 100k residents, 1670th for property loss, and 1130th 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 Buchanan 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 Buchanan County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

67%
14%
20%
Property (buildings): $8.7M (66.6%)
Life safety: $1.8M (13.8%)
Agriculture: $2.6M (19.6%)

Total expected annual loss: $13,126,910 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 20% of expected annual loss in Buchanan 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)

Inland Flooding
$414K
Tornado
$382K
Cold Wave
$366K
Strong Wind
$278K
Heat Wave
$147K
Winter Weather
$82K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$6.8M
Tornado
$823K
Strong Wind
$501K
Hail
$490K
Lightning
$26K
Earthquake
$26K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Buchanan 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

11%
67%
22%
Combination: 11% (1)
Volunteer: 67% (6)
Unreported: 22% (2)
Residents per Station
2,587
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
38.7
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 9 departments registered in NERIS Public for Buchanan County, IA. 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 Buchanan 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 9 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Brandon Volunteer Fire Department 10,381 $2.1M Relatively High 0
Independence Fire Department 20,694 $1.8M Relatively High 1
Rowley Fire Department 6,965 $1.4M Very High 1
Coggon Fire Department 12,273 $1.3M Very High 1
Winthrop Fire Department 7,137 $528.5K Relatively High 1
Stanley Fire Department 6,291 $493.6K Relatively High 1
Quasqueton Fire Department 4,609 $348.7K Very High 1
Hazleton Fire Department 3,763 $313.8K Relatively High 1
Aurora Fire Department 2,528 $179.9K Relatively High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

8.6%
Poverty Rate
18.6%
Age 65+
12.6%
Disability Rate
6.7%
Uninsured
61.0%
Pre-1980 Housing
4.0%
Mobile Homes
7.7%
Vacancy Rate
2.8%
Wood Heat
$78,879
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

6
Last 10 Years
16
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.

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