Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Buchanan County, VA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 72.7 Relatively High

19,415
Population
11
Departments
15
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
0.37
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
20th highest of 133
Life Safety per 100k
1.90
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
4th highest of 133
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$5.7M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
68th highest of 133
Property Loss per Resident
$292
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
32nd highest of 133

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 Buchanan County, the largest single contributor is Inland Flooding, 63% of the life-safety total.

Buchanan County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $5.7M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 133 Virginia counties. Nationally, Buchanan County ranks 1330th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 684th for life safety per 100k residents, 2113th for property loss, and 1918th 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 Buchanan 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 Buchanan County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

53%
47%
Property (buildings): $5.7M (52.8%)
Life safety: $5.1M (47.1%)
Agriculture: $2K (0.0%)

Total expected annual loss: $10,745,166 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)

Inland Flooding
$3.2M
Cold Wave
$1.4M
Strong Wind
$128K
Landslide
$107K
Lightning
$54K
Avalanche
$54K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$5.3M
Earthquake
$114K
Wildfire
$89K
Strong Wind
$45K
Hurricane
$31K
Tornado
$18K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Buchanan 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

18%
82%
Combination: 18% (2)
Volunteer: 82% (9)
Residents per Station
1,294
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
77.3
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 11 departments registered in NERIS Public for Buchanan County, VA. 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 Buchanan 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 11 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Haysi Volunteer Fire Department 22,523 $2.8M Relatively High 1
Bradshaw Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. 6,629 $2.6M Very High 1
Oakwood Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. 10,326 $2.5M Relatively High 2
Grundy Fire Department 8,514 $2.5M Relatively High 1
Knox Creek Volunteer Fire Department 6,364 $2.0M Relatively High 2
Berwind Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. 5,026 $2.0M Very High 3
Raysal Volunteer Fire Department 5,158 $2.0M Very High 1
Whitewood Volunteer Fire Department 6,754 $1.8M Relatively High 1
Patterson Volunteer Fire Department 5,720 $1.6M Relatively High 1
Harman Volunteer Fire Department 5,216 $1.2M Relatively High 1
Council Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. 3,572 $752.4K Relatively High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

25.2%
Poverty Rate
23.9%
Age 65+
37.7%
Disability Rate
4.8%
Uninsured
52.0%
Pre-1980 Housing
35.8%
Mobile Homes
27.0%
Vacancy Rate
1.8%
Wood Heat
$43,623
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

9
Last 10 Years
18
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