Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Madison County, IA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 72.4 Relatively High

16,926
Population
7
Departments
13
Stations
4
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
0.15
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
73rd highest of 99
Life Safety per 100k
0.86
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
74th highest of 99
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$5.2M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
64th highest of 99
Property Loss per Resident
$307
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
78th 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 Madison County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 28% of the life-safety total.

Madison County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $5.2M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 99 Iowa counties. Nationally, Madison County ranks 2293rd of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1963rd for life safety per 100k residents, 2205th for property loss, and 1791st 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 Madison 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 Madison County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

51%
19%
30%
Property (buildings): $5.2M (50.7%)
Life safety: $2.0M (19.5%)
Agriculture: $3.1M (29.9%)

Total expected annual loss: $10,265,008 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 30% of expected annual loss in Madison 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)

Tornado
$560K
Strong Wind
$377K
Heat Wave
$364K
Cold Wave
$344K
Hail
$204K
Lightning
$82K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$3.7M
Tornado
$776K
Strong Wind
$360K
Hail
$151K
Ice Storm
$97K
Wildfire
$67K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Madison 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

29%
71%
Career: 29% (2)
Volunteer: 71% (5)
Residents per Station
1,302
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
76.8
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 7 departments registered in NERIS Public for Madison 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 Madison 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
West Des Moines Fire Department 76,597 $7.1M Relatively Moderate 7
Winterset Fire Department 16,926 $2.0M Relatively High 1
Truro Fire & Rescue Department 10,067 $1.8M Relatively High 1
Earlham Fire Department 19,815 $1.8M Relatively High 1
Norwalk Fire Department 16,169 $1.6M Relatively Moderate 1
Martensdale Fire Department 7,425 $863.9K Relatively High 1
East Peru Volunteer Fire Department 4,365 $510.8K Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

7.0%
Poverty Rate
17.7%
Age 65+
9.5%
Disability Rate
4.9%
Uninsured
54.5%
Pre-1980 Housing
5.3%
Mobile Homes
5.7%
Vacancy Rate
3.2%
Wood Heat
$95,474
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

3
Last 10 Years
9
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