Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Nelson County, ND

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 92.0 Very High

3,016
Population
5
Departments
5
Stations
1
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
0.02
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
52nd highest of 53
Life Safety per 100k
0.66
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
47th highest of 53
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$1.6M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
36th highest of 53
Property Loss per Resident
$521
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
24th highest of 53

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 Nelson County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 51% of the life-safety total.

Nelson County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $1.6M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 53 North Dakota counties. Nationally, Nelson County ranks 3152nd of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2301st for life safety per 100k residents, 3017th for property loss, and 786th 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 Nelson 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 Nelson County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

53%
9%
38%
Property (buildings): $1.6M (52.8%)
Life safety: $272K (9.1%)
Agriculture: $1.1M (38.1%)

Total expected annual loss: $2,977,762 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 38% of expected annual loss in Nelson 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
$139K
Winter Weather
$58K
Ice Storm
$18K
Strong Wind
$18K
Tornado
$11K
Lightning
$10K

By property loss ($/yr)

Hail
$463K
Inland Flooding
$458K
Ice Storm
$265K
Tornado
$176K
Wildfire
$104K
Winter Weather
$58K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Nelson 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

100%
Volunteer: 100% (5)
Residents per Station
603
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
165.8
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 5 departments registered in NERIS Public for Nelson County, ND. 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 Nelson 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 5 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Tolna Rural Fire Protection District 12,127 $2.6M Very High 1
Aneta Fire Protection District 8,739 $1.0M Very High 1
Lakota Fire Protection District 5,544 $903.6K Very High 1
Mcville Fire Protection District 5,261 $770.8K Very High 1
Petersburg Fire Protection District 3,016 $272.0K Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

7.2%
Poverty Rate
28.3%
Age 65+
17.4%
Disability Rate
4.0%
Uninsured
77.8%
Pre-1980 Housing
3.8%
Mobile Homes
25.0%
Vacancy Rate
1.2%
Wood Heat
$67,193
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

9
Last 10 Years
19
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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