Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Meade County, SD

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 75.7 Relatively High

30,546
Population
16
Departments
19
Stations
7
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
0.26
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
21st highest of 66
Life Safety per 100k
0.84
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
64th highest of 66
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$17.7M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
4th highest of 66
Property Loss per Resident
$578
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
32nd 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 Meade County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 48% of the life-safety total.

Meade County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $17.7M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 66 South Dakota counties. Nationally, Meade County ranks 1679th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1993rd for life safety per 100k residents, 983rd for property loss, and 636th 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 Meade 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 Meade County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

81%
16%
Property (buildings): $17.7M (81.5%)
Life safety: $3.5M (16.3%)
Agriculture: $491K (2.3%)

Total expected annual loss: $21,685,364 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
$1.7M
Winter Weather
$370K
Tornado
$361K
Lightning
$261K
Strong Wind
$226K
Wildfire
$222K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$9.4M
Wildfire
$6.4M
Hail
$603K
Tornado
$494K
Winter Weather
$379K
Earthquake
$156K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Meade 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

12%
75%
Career: 6% (1)
Combination: 12% (2)
Volunteer: 75% (12)
Unreported: 6% (1)
Residents per Station
1,608
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
62.2
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 16 departments registered in NERIS Public for Meade 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 Meade 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 16 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Sturgis Volunteer Fire Department 28,216 $3.4M Very High 1
Box Elder Volunteer Fire Department 29,152 $3.4M Relatively High 1
Black Hawk Volunteer Fire Department 28,623 $3.1M Very High 2
North Haines Volunteer Fire Department 20,735 $2.4M Very High 1
Vale Fire Department 15,132 $2.2M Very High 1
Doty Volunteer Fire Department 17,698 $1.9M Very High 2
New Underwood Fire Department 14,511 $1.8M Very High 1
Piedmont Fire Department 15,147 $1.7M Very High 3
Wall Volunteer Fire Department 10,882 $1.6M Very High 1
Whitewood Volunteer Fire Department/ Rescue Hose Company #1 10,602 $1.3M Very High 1
Enning Fire Department 10,002 $1.3M Very High 1
Wasta Volunteer Fire Department 10,002 $1.3M Very High 1
Elm Springs Fire Department 6,018 $747.3K Very High 1
Hereford Volunteer Fire Department 6,018 $747.3K Very High 1
Opal Volunteer Fire Department 6,018 $747.3K Very High 1
Ellsworth Air Force Base (Fdid #02019) 3,331 $366.1K Very Low 0
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

7.1%
Poverty Rate
16.7%
Age 65+
14.0%
Disability Rate
9.4%
Uninsured
37.7%
Pre-1980 Housing
12.3%
Mobile Homes
7.0%
Vacancy Rate
1.3%
Wood Heat
$78,397
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

5
Last 10 Years
13
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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