Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Clay County, SD

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 85.3 Very High

15,219
Population
9
Departments
12
Stations
3
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
0.19
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
35th highest of 66
Life Safety per 100k
1.24
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
58th highest of 66
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$6.6M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
17th highest of 66
Property Loss per Resident
$431
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
49th highest of 66

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 Tornado, 46% of the life-safety total.

Clay County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $6.6M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 66 South Dakota counties. Nationally, Clay County ranks 2030th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1352nd for life safety per 100k residents, 1975th for property loss, and 1091st 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

56%
22%
21%
Property (buildings): $6.6M (56.4%)
Life safety: $2.6M (22.2%)
Agriculture: $2.5M (21.5%)

Total expected annual loss: $11,645,830 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 21% 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)

Tornado
$1.2M
Cold Wave
$422K
Strong Wind
$290K
Heat Wave
$209K
Lightning
$185K
Ice Storm
$146K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$4.2M
Tornado
$1.6M
Hail
$257K
Strong Wind
$153K
Winter Weather
$105K
Ice Storm
$86K

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

11%
89%
Combination: 11% (1)
Volunteer: 89% (8)
Residents per Station
1,268
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
78.8
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 9 departments registered in NERIS Public for Clay County, SD. 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 9 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Irene Volunteer Fire Department 11,158 $2.8M Very High 1
Centerville Fire Department 10,469 $2.6M Very High 1
Vermillion Fire Ems Department 15,219 $2.6M Very High 4
Elk Point Fire Protection District 12,099 $2.0M Very High 1
Beresford Fire And Rescue 10,393 $2.0M Very High 1
Gayville Community Fire Department 6,853 $1.5M Very High 1
Volin Fire Department 6,853 $1.5M Very High 1
Ponca Fire and Rescue 5,476 $1.1M Very High 1
Wakonda Fire Department 3,230 $505.6K Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

19.7%
Poverty Rate
12.2%
Age 65+
13.2%
Disability Rate
9.1%
Uninsured
56.1%
Pre-1980 Housing
5.5%
Mobile Homes
11.4%
Vacancy Rate
0.3%
Wood Heat
$58,897
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

5
Last 10 Years
12
Last 25 Years
Flood
Most Frequent

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