Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Brown County, MN

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 77.2 Relatively High

25,800
Population
13
Departments
13
Stations
8
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
0.84
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
14th highest of 87
Life Safety per 100k
3.26
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
4th highest of 87
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$11.4M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
37th highest of 87
Property Loss per Resident
$443
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
32nd highest of 87

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 Brown County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 86% of the life-safety total.

Brown County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $11.4M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 87 Minnesota counties. Nationally, Brown County ranks 689th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 264th for life safety per 100k residents, 1389th for property loss, and 1055th 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 Brown 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 Brown County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

47%
47%
Property (buildings): $11.4M (46.8%)
Life safety: $11.5M (47.1%)
Agriculture: $1.5M (6.1%)

Total expected annual loss: $24,444,961 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 6% of expected annual loss in Brown 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)

Cold Wave
$10.0M
Tornado
$618K
Heat Wave
$380K
Strong Wind
$343K
Winter Weather
$131K
Hail
$37K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$8.1M
Tornado
$1.7M
Strong Wind
$1.0M
Hail
$271K
Winter Weather
$206K
Ice Storm
$103K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Brown 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

15%
85%
Volunteer: 15% (2)
Unreported: 85% (11)
Residents per Station
1,985
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
50.4
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 13 departments registered in NERIS Public for Brown County, MN. 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 Brown 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 13 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
New Ulm Fire Department 22,444 $9.0M Relatively High 1
Springfield Fire Department 13,755 $5.7M Very High 1
Sleepy Eye Fire Department 11,655 $5.3M Very High 1
Franklin Fire Department 14,484 $4.4M Very High 1
City Of St. James Volunteer Fire Department 14,473 $4.1M Very High 1
Comfrey Fire Department 11,506 $3.4M Relatively High 1
Jeffers Fire Department 11,506 $3.4M Relatively High 1
Morgan Fire Department And Ambulance Service 7,398 $2.8M Very High 1
Sanborn Fire Department 7,115 $2.3M Relatively High 1
Hanska Fire Department 3,268 $1.5M Relatively High 1
Nicollet Fire Department 9,833 $1.4M Very High 1
Courtland Fire Department 3,358 $463.8K Very High 1
Lafayette Fire Department 3,358 $463.8K Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

8.5%
Poverty Rate
22.2%
Age 65+
11.3%
Disability Rate
4.6%
Uninsured
70.4%
Pre-1980 Housing
3.1%
Mobile Homes
6.8%
Vacancy Rate
2.0%
Wood Heat
$69,774
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

5
Last 10 Years
13
Last 25 Years
Flood
Most Frequent

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