Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Cameron County, TX

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 65.5 Relatively High

426,120
Population
7
Departments
33
Stations
122
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
3.55
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
18th highest of 254
Life Safety per 100k
0.83
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
192nd highest of 254
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$111.1M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
13th highest of 254
Property Loss per Resident
$261
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
159th highest of 254

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 Cameron County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 63% of the life-safety total.

Cameron County carries an expected 4 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $111.1M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 254 Texas counties. Nationally, Cameron County ranks 142nd of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2013th for life safety per 100k residents, 188th for property loss, and 2192nd 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 Cameron 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 Cameron County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

67%
29%
Property (buildings): $111.1M (67.3%)
Life safety: $48.7M (29.5%)
Agriculture: $5.4M (3.3%)

Total expected annual loss: $165,130,612 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
$30.9M
Hurricane
$7.8M
Heat Wave
$6.1M
Tornado
$2.3M
Strong Wind
$644K
Hail
$269K

By property loss ($/yr)

Hurricane
$75.2M
Inland Flooding
$30.4M
Hail
$2.1M
Tornado
$841K
Ice Storm
$812K
Coastal Flooding
$494K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Cameron 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

57%
29%
14%
Career: 57% (4)
Combination: 29% (2)
Volunteer: 14% (1)
Residents per Station
12,913
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
7.7
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 7 departments registered in NERIS Public for Cameron County, TX. 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 Cameron 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 7 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Brownsville Fire Department 211,833 $24.2M Relatively High 18
Harlingen Fire Department 107,515 $12.6M Relatively High 8
San Benito Fire Department 54,786 $6.3M Relatively High 2
La Feria Fire & Rescue 25,132 $2.9M Relatively High 1
City Of Rio Hondo Volunteer Fire Department 17,677 $2.0M Relatively High 1
Port Isabel Volunteer Fire Department 16,000 $1.3M Very High 1
South Padre Island Fire Department 3,810 $111.5K Very High 2
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

24.8%
Poverty Rate
14.3%
Age 65+
12.3%
Disability Rate
25.8%
Uninsured
29.8%
Pre-1980 Housing
10.5%
Mobile Homes
13.3%
Vacancy Rate
0.0%
Wood Heat
$55,600
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

10
Last 10 Years
24
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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