Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Macon County, NC

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 82.0 Very High

37,941
Population
12
Departments
29
Stations
10
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
0.80
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
24th highest of 100
Life Safety per 100k
2.11
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
1st highest of 100
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$13.2M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
60th highest of 100
Property Loss per Resident
$348
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
34th highest of 100

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 Macon County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 64% of the life-safety total.

Macon County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $13.2M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 100 North Carolina counties. Nationally, Macon County ranks 720th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 575th for life safety per 100k residents, 1251st for property loss, and 1517th 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 Macon 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 Macon County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

54%
45%
Property (buildings): $13.2M (54.2%)
Life safety: $11.0M (45.0%)
Agriculture: $193K (0.8%)

Total expected annual loss: $24,397,516 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
$7.0M
Landslide
$2.4M
Tornado
$685K
Lightning
$351K
Strong Wind
$311K
Earthquake
$78K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$10.0M
Landslide
$1.1M
Tornado
$688K
Earthquake
$498K
Hurricane
$295K
Ice Storm
$185K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Macon 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

8%
50%
8%
33%
Career: 8% (1)
Combination: 50% (6)
Volunteer: 8% (1)
Unreported: 33% (4)
Residents per Station
1,308
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
76.4
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 12 departments registered in NERIS Public for Macon County, NC. 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 Macon 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 12 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Asheville Regional Airport Department Of Public Safety 166,049 $15.2M Relatively Moderate 1
Franklin Fire And Rescue Department 34,134 $10.1M Very High 2
West Macon Fire and Rescue 15,876 $5.1M Very High 2
Cashiers Glenville Volunteer Fire Department 19,982 $5.1M Very High 3
Clarks Chapel Fire & Rescue Department, Inc. 13,131 $4.0M Very High 2
Otto Volunteer Fire And Rescue 13,131 $4.0M Very High 2
Cullasaja Gorge Fire and Rescue 12,127 $3.5M Very High 1
Cowee Volunteer Fire/Rescue, Inc. 8,046 $2.7M Very High 5
Nantahala Volunteer Fire and Rescue, Inc. 7,975 $2.5M Very High 2
Sky Valley-Scaly Mountain Volunteer Fire & Rescue 8,548 $2.3M Very High 2
Mountain Valley Fire Department 7,493 $2.1M Very High 2
Clay County Fire & Rescue Squad, Inc. 11,610 $1.2M Relatively High 5
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

11.6%
Poverty Rate
29.2%
Age 65+
15.4%
Disability Rate
13.7%
Uninsured
36.2%
Pre-1980 Housing
14.8%
Mobile Homes
32.4%
Vacancy Rate
5.1%
Wood Heat
$58,652
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

9
Last 10 Years
13
Last 25 Years
Hurricane
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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