Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Harlan County, KY

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 71.8 Relatively High

25,772
Population
20
Departments
24
Stations
11
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
0.27
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
47th highest of 120
Life Safety per 100k
1.05
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
71st highest of 120
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$14.1M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
27th highest of 120
Property Loss per Resident
$546
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
22nd highest of 120

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 Harlan County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 33% of the life-safety total.

Harlan County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $14.1M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 120 Kentucky counties. Nationally, Harlan County ranks 1630th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1648th for life safety per 100k residents, 1183rd for property loss, and 717th 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 Harlan 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 Harlan County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

79%
21%
Property (buildings): $14.1M (79.1%)
Life safety: $3.7M (20.8%)
Agriculture: $3K (0.0%)

Total expected annual loss: $17,795,343 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)

Cold Wave
$1.2M
Strong Wind
$1.1M
Tornado
$425K
Inland Flooding
$341K
Heat Wave
$159K
Avalanche
$124K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$13.3M
Earthquake
$208K
Tornado
$163K
Hail
$148K
Wildfire
$87K
Strong Wind
$83K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Harlan 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

10%
90%
Combination: 10% (2)
Volunteer: 90% (18)
Residents per Station
1,074
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
93.1
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 20 departments registered in NERIS Public for Harlan County, KY. 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 Harlan 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 20 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Martins Fork Volunteer Fire Department 14,462 $2.2M Very High 1
Raphine Volunteer Fire Company, Inc. 18,948 $2.1M Relatively High 1
Big Stone Gap Volunteer Fire Department 14,933 $1.5M Relatively High 2
Cumberland River Volunteer Fire Department 9,237 $1.5M Relatively High 2
Putney Volunteer Fire Department 9,030 $1.2M Relatively High 1
Cumberland Fire Department 8,760 $1.2M Relatively High 3
Jonesville Volunteer Fire Department 12,069 $995.5K Relatively High 1
Thomas Walker Volunteer Fire Department #1 10,401 $937.9K Very High 0
Bledsoe Volunteer Fire Department 3,342 $843.8K Relatively Moderate 2
City Of Evarts Volunteer Fire Department 5,479 $777.1K Relatively High 1
Harlan Fire Department 4,726 $764.5K Very High 2
Benham Volunteer Fire Department 5,052 $605.7K Relatively High 1
Lynch Volunteer Fire Department 5,052 $605.7K Relatively High 1
Lower Cloverfork Fire Department 4,389 $584.1K Very High 1
Yocum Creek Volunteer Fire Department 4,389 $584.1K Very High 1
St Charles Volunteer Fire Department 7,074 $583.8K Very High 0
Loyall Fire Department 3,183 $491.4K Relatively High 1
Gordon Volunteer Fire & Rescue 2,618 $440.4K Very High 1
Appalachia Volunteer Fire Department 2,240 $289.7K Relatively High 1
Keokee Volunteer Fire & Rescue 2,993 $224.1K Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

27.4%
Poverty Rate
19.5%
Age 65+
27.2%
Disability Rate
4.9%
Uninsured
57.0%
Pre-1980 Housing
19.3%
Mobile Homes
17.7%
Vacancy Rate
2.9%
Wood Heat
$41,701
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

16
Last 10 Years
24
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.

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