Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Clay County, MN

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 70.0 Relatively High

66,059
Population
15
Departments
27
Stations
16
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
0.48
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
24th highest of 87
Life Safety per 100k
0.73
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
64th highest of 87
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$32.6M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
11th highest of 87
Property Loss per Resident
$493
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
23rd 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 Clay County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 77% of the life-safety total.

Clay County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $32.6M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 87 Minnesota counties. Nationally, Clay County ranks 1089th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2178th for life safety per 100k residents, 550th for property loss, and 885th 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

78%
16%
Property (buildings): $32.6M (77.6%)
Life safety: $6.6M (15.8%)
Agriculture: $2.7M (6.5%)

Total expected annual loss: $41,975,208 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 7% 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)

Cold Wave
$5.1M
Tornado
$332K
Winter Weather
$298K
Heat Wave
$276K
Strong Wind
$188K
Hail
$179K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$27.9M
Tornado
$2.1M
Strong Wind
$1.1M
Winter Weather
$707K
Hail
$441K
Wildfire
$153K

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

13%
53%
33%
Career: 13% (2)
Volunteer: 53% (8)
Unreported: 33% (5)
Residents per Station
2,447
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
40.9
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 15 departments registered in NERIS Public for Clay 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 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 15 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
West Fargo Rural Fire Department 158,353 $12.7M Relatively Moderate 1
Fargo Fire Department 129,716 $10.4M Relatively Moderate 9
Moorhead Fire Department 46,458 $4.7M Relatively High 4
Leonard Fire Protection District 10,940 $2.0M Relatively High 1
Glyndon Volunteer Fire Department 19,499 $2.0M Very High 1
Dilworth Fire Department 11,809 $1.7M Relatively High 2
Hawley Area Fire Department 11,151 $1.1M Very High 1
Barnesville Area Fire Department 7,994 $1.1M Very High 1
Sabin-Elmwood Fire District 11,129 $1.1M Very High 1
Ulen Fire Department 13,202 $1.0M Relatively High 1
Hitterdal Volunteer Fire Department 9,381 $809.9K Relatively High 1
Felton Community Fire Department 7,775 $795.0K Very High 1
Davenport Rural Fire Protection District 5,722 $769.3K Relatively High 1
Kindred Community & Rural Fire Protection District 5,722 $769.3K Relatively High 1
Grandin Fire Department 3,850 $313.3K Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

13.3%
Poverty Rate
14.0%
Age 65+
12.8%
Disability Rate
4.0%
Uninsured
49.5%
Pre-1980 Housing
2.2%
Mobile Homes
4.1%
Vacancy Rate
1.1%
Wood Heat
$83,145
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

4
Last 10 Years
14
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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