Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Tama County, IA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 68.6 Relatively High

16,868
Population
14
Departments
14
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
0.12
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
90th highest of 99
Life Safety per 100k
0.70
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
87th highest of 99
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$6.0M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
53rd highest of 99
Property Loss per Resident
$355
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
61st 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 Tama County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 38% of the life-safety total.

Tama County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $6.0M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 99 Iowa counties. Nationally, Tama County ranks 2493rd of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2233rd for life safety per 100k residents, 2064th for property loss, and 1482nd 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 Tama 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 Tama County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

48%
13%
40%
Property (buildings): $6.0M (47.5%)
Life safety: $1.6M (12.8%)
Agriculture: $5.0M (39.7%)

Total expected annual loss: $12,602,525 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 40% of expected annual loss in Tama 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
$615K
Strong Wind
$409K
Cold Wave
$227K
Hail
$141K
Winter Weather
$57K
Heat Wave
$55K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$4.2M
Tornado
$771K
Strong Wind
$708K
Hail
$118K
Wildfire
$95K
Ice Storm
$39K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Tama 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

79%
21%
Volunteer: 79% (11)
Unreported: 21% (3)
Residents per Station
1,205
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
83.0
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 14 departments registered in NERIS Public for Tama 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 Tama 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 14 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Toledo Fire Department 14,252 $1.4M Relatively High 1
Belle Plaine Fire Department 10,989 $1.0M Relatively High 1
Elberon Fire & Rescue 11,187 $896.2K Relatively High 1
Tama Fire Department 8,540 $885.3K Relatively Moderate 1
Montour Volunteer Fire Department 7,838 $749.4K Relatively High 1
Marion Township Fire Department 7,891 $737.7K Very High 1
Traer Fire Depatment 8,328 $722.3K Relatively High 1
Chelsea Fire Department 5,647 $643.4K Very High 1
Reinbeck Fire Department 6,817 $551.3K Relatively High 1
Gladbrook Fire & Rescue 5,307 $483.5K Relatively High 1
Vining Volunteer Fire Department 5,332 $481.2K Very High 1
Lincoln Volunteer Fire Department 2,616 $251.6K Very High 0
Clutier Fire Department 3,021 $238.9K Very High 1
Garwin Fire Department 2,691 $231.9K Relatively High 2
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

14.8%
Poverty Rate
21.0%
Age 65+
11.7%
Disability Rate
6.2%
Uninsured
75.5%
Pre-1980 Housing
3.2%
Mobile Homes
11.5%
Vacancy Rate
3.3%
Wood Heat
$70,404
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

5
Last 10 Years
12
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