Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Custer County, NE

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 83.4 Very High

10,518
Population
12
Departments
13
Stations
4
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
0.11
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
37th highest of 93
Life Safety per 100k
1.06
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
76th highest of 93
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$7.4M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
20th highest of 93
Property Loss per Resident
$704
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
23rd highest of 93

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 Custer County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 38% of the life-safety total.

Custer County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $7.4M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 93 Nebraska counties. Nationally, Custer County ranks 2548th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1631st for life safety per 100k residents, 1831st for property loss, and 378th 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 Custer 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 Custer County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

67%
14%
20%
Property (buildings): $7.4M (66.7%)
Life safety: $1.5M (13.7%)
Agriculture: $2.2M (19.6%)

Total expected annual loss: $11,107,346 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 20% of expected annual loss in Custer 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
$576K
Winter Weather
$207K
Cold Wave
$205K
Inland Flooding
$146K
Heat Wave
$142K
Lightning
$71K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$5.3M
Tornado
$874K
Wildfire
$610K
Hail
$319K
Strong Wind
$91K
Winter Weather
$74K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Custer 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%
83%
8%
Combination: 8% (1)
Volunteer: 83% (10)
Unreported: 8% (1)
Residents per Station
809
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
123.6
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 12 departments registered in NERIS Public for Custer County, NE. 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 Custer 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
Cozad Volunteer Fire And Rescue 12,332 $1.6M Very High 1
Broken Bow Volunteer Fire Department 10,518 $1.5M Very High 2
Oconto Volunteer Fire Department 8,114 $1.2M Very High 1
Eddyville Volunteer Fire Department 6,795 $984.7K Very High 1
Ansley Volunteer Fire Department 6,777 $971.7K Relatively High 2
Arnold Volunteer Fire Department 7,083 $932.6K Relatively High 1
Arcadia Volunteer Fire Department 7,266 $914.4K Very High 1
Anselmo Volunteer Fire Department 5,405 $693.5K Very High 0
Comstock Rural Fire Protection District 4,299 $575.1K Very High 1
Merna Fire Department 2,545 $347.6K Relatively High 1
Sargent Rural Fire District 2,545 $347.6K Relatively High 1
Callaway Rural Fire Department 2,860 $345.9K Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

7.1%
Poverty Rate
22.6%
Age 65+
14.1%
Disability Rate
7.1%
Uninsured
72.6%
Pre-1980 Housing
1.7%
Mobile Homes
15.6%
Vacancy Rate
2.9%
Wood Heat
$68,338
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

6
Last 10 Years
15
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.

Explore the Regional Tier See the Response Demo