Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Pocahontas County, WV

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 60.2 Relatively High

7,784
Population
10
Departments
13
Stations
5
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
0.07
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
36th highest of 55
Life Safety per 100k
0.93
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
11th highest of 55
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$5.7M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
46th highest of 55
Property Loss per Resident
$738
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
12th highest of 55

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 Pocahontas County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 66% of the life-safety total.

Pocahontas County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $5.7M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 55 West Virginia counties. Nationally, Pocahontas County ranks 2812th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1858th for life safety per 100k residents, 2100th for property loss, and 324th 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 Pocahontas 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 Pocahontas County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

85%
15%
Property (buildings): $5.7M (84.6%)
Life safety: $989K (14.6%)
Agriculture: $54K (0.8%)

Total expected annual loss: $6,785,129 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
$655K
Lightning
$181K
Strong Wind
$48K
Inland Flooding
$35K
Landslide
$25K
Hail
$17K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$5.5M
Strong Wind
$49K
Hurricane
$42K
Hail
$32K
Earthquake
$24K
Winter Weather
$22K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Pocahontas 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

30%
70%
Combination: 30% (3)
Volunteer: 70% (7)
Residents per Station
599
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
167.0
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 10 departments registered in NERIS Public for Pocahontas County, WV. 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 Pocahontas 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 10 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Melfa Volunteer Fire And Rescue Company, Inc. 9,115 $1.2M Relatively High 2
Circleville Volunteer Fire Department 6,769 $997.9K Very High 1
Marlinton Volunteer Fire Department 6,381 $825.0K Relatively High 1
Kenbridge Fire Department 10,269 $758.2K Relatively High 1
Cass Volunteer Fire Department 4,755 $597.3K Relatively High 1
Bartow Frank Durbin Volunteer Fire And Rescue Company 4,359 $584.7K Relatively High 2
Huttonsville-Mill Creek Volunteer Fire Department 5,653 $435.9K Relatively High 2
Shavers Fork Fire Rescue 3,125 $395.3K Relatively Moderate 1
Highland County Volunteer Fire Department 2,296 $253.4K Relatively High 1
Hillsboro Volunteer Fire Department 2,022 $240.3K Relatively Moderate 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

22.5%
Poverty Rate
27.1%
Age 65+
22.0%
Disability Rate
6.1%
Uninsured
45.2%
Pre-1980 Housing
14.1%
Mobile Homes
53.5%
Vacancy Rate
25.1%
Wood Heat
$47,011
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

4
Last 10 Years
14
Last 25 Years
Flood
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