Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Clay County, IA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 84.8 Very High

16,461
Population
9
Departments
9
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
0.15
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
72nd highest of 99
Life Safety per 100k
0.90
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
73rd highest of 99
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$12.7M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
18th highest of 99
Property Loss per Resident
$771
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
1st 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 Clay County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 40% of the life-safety total.

Clay County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $12.7M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 99 Iowa counties. Nationally, Clay County ranks 2281st of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1901st for life safety per 100k residents, 1287th for property loss, and 283rd 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 Clay 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 Clay County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

74%
12%
14%
Property (buildings): $12.7M (74.1%)
Life safety: $2.0M (11.9%)
Agriculture: $2.4M (14.0%)

Total expected annual loss: $17,106,403 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 14% of expected annual loss in Clay 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)

Tornado
$814K
Cold Wave
$789K
Strong Wind
$118K
Hail
$78K
Winter Weather
$73K
Heat Wave
$63K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$10.8M
Tornado
$1.3M
Strong Wind
$269K
Hail
$146K
Winter Weather
$128K
Ice Storm
$65K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Clay 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%
78%
11%
Combination: 11% (1)
Volunteer: 78% (7)
Unreported: 11% (1)
Residents per Station
1,829
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
54.7
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 9 departments registered in NERIS Public for Clay 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 Clay 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
Spencer Fire Department 11,549 $1.4M Very High 1
Fostoria Fire And Rescue 8,356 $1.0M Very High 1
Royal Clay Lincoln Fire Agency 7,499 $899.5K Relatively High 1
Ruthven Fire Department 3,393 $757.1K Relatively High 1
Dickens Volunteer Firefighters 5,832 $717.6K Relatively High 1
Sioux Rapids Fire Department 4,999 $593.3K Very High 1
City Of Everly Fire Department 3,009 $356.7K Very High 1
Peterson Fire Department 3,009 $356.7K Very High 1
Webb Fire Department 1,990 $236.6K Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

11.4%
Poverty Rate
22.4%
Age 65+
14.8%
Disability Rate
5.5%
Uninsured
69.5%
Pre-1980 Housing
1.9%
Mobile Homes
10.7%
Vacancy Rate
0.7%
Wood Heat
$68,100
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

6
Last 10 Years
15
Last 25 Years
Severe Storm
Most Frequent

Response-level intelligence for your region

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