Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Cass County, IA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 89.9 Very High

13,096
Population
8
Departments
8
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
0.46
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
16th highest of 99
Life Safety per 100k
3.51
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
8th highest of 99
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$6.0M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
54th highest of 99
Property Loss per Resident
$456
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
38th highest of 99

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

Cass County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $6.0M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 99 Iowa counties. Nationally, Cass County ranks 1148th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 229th for life safety per 100k residents, 2068th for property loss, and 1005th 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 Cass 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 Cass County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

36%
38%
26%
Property (buildings): $6.0M (36.0%)
Life safety: $6.3M (38.0%)
Agriculture: $4.3M (26.0%)

Total expected annual loss: $16,582,446 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 26% of expected annual loss in Cass 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)

Cold Wave
$4.0M
Tornado
$1.2M
Heat Wave
$768K
Strong Wind
$164K
Hail
$160K
Lightning
$39K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$3.9M
Tornado
$1.3M
Strong Wind
$353K
Hail
$229K
Ice Storm
$84K
Winter Weather
$30K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Cass 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%
62%
25%
Combination: 12% (1)
Volunteer: 62% (5)
Unreported: 25% (2)
Residents per Station
1,637
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
61.1
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 8 departments registered in NERIS Public for Cass County, IA. 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 Cass 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 8 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Dallas Center Fire Department 42,017 $6.4M Relatively High 1
Brayton Volunteer Fire Department 3,855 $2.0M Very High 1
Cumberland Volunteer Fire Department 3,777 $1.8M Very High 1
Griswold Volunteer Fire Department 4,256 $1.4M Relatively High 1
Anita Volunteer Fire Department 2,376 $1.2M Very High 1
Atlantic Fire Department 2,376 $1.2M Very High 1
Marne Fire And Rescue 2,376 $1.2M Very High 1
Wiota Volunteer Fire Department 2,376 $1.2M Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

14.3%
Poverty Rate
23.4%
Age 65+
15.0%
Disability Rate
4.1%
Uninsured
79.0%
Pre-1980 Housing
2.3%
Mobile Homes
8.6%
Vacancy Rate
0.9%
Wood Heat
$62,351
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

4
Last 10 Years
11
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.

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