Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Polk County, MO

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 75.1 Relatively High

32,444
Population
7
Departments
19
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
0.39
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
61st highest of 115
Life Safety per 100k
1.20
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
106th highest of 115
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$9.1M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
48th highest of 115
Property Loss per Resident
$282
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
93rd highest of 115

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 Polk County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 27% of the life-safety total.

Polk County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $9.1M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 115 Missouri counties. Nationally, Polk County ranks 1288th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1400th for life safety per 100k residents, 1608th for property loss, and 1998th 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 Polk 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 Polk County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

59%
34%
7%
Property (buildings): $9.1M (58.8%)
Life safety: $5.3M (34.2%)
Agriculture: $1.1M (7.0%)

Total expected annual loss: $15,541,711 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 Polk 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
$1.4M
Heat Wave
$1.4M
Inland Flooding
$991K
Lightning
$467K
Cold Wave
$441K
Strong Wind
$367K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$5.9M
Tornado
$1.0M
Strong Wind
$628K
Ice Storm
$575K
Hail
$436K
Earthquake
$354K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Polk 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

14%
86%
Combination: 14% (1)
Volunteer: 86% (6)
Residents per Station
1,708
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
58.6
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 7 departments registered in NERIS Public for Polk County, MO. 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 Polk 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 7 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Central Polk County Fire Protection District 26,343 $4.4M Relatively High 1
Bolivar City Fire Department 23,644 $3.9M Relatively High 3
Walnut Grove Fire Protection District 24,110 $3.3M Relatively High 5
Morrisville Volunteer Fire Department 14,594 $2.6M Relatively High 3
Humansville Fire & Rescue 14,149 $2.2M Relatively High 2
Dunnegan Rural Fire Department 12,294 $1.9M Relatively High 2
Pleasant Hope Fire Protection District 8,814 $1.6M Relatively High 3
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

16.3%
Poverty Rate
18.3%
Age 65+
16.3%
Disability Rate
14.1%
Uninsured
39.7%
Pre-1980 Housing
9.1%
Mobile Homes
10.6%
Vacancy Rate
6.9%
Wood Heat
$61,608
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

5
Last 10 Years
20
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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