Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Mitchell County, IA

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 82.7 Very High

10,575
Population
4
Departments
4
Stations
3
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
98th highest of 99
Life Safety per 100k
0.69
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
88th highest of 99
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$6.0M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
52nd highest of 99
Property Loss per Resident
$571
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
13th 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 Mitchell County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 59% of the life-safety total.

Mitchell 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, Mitchell County ranks 2807th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2242nd for life safety per 100k residents, 2057th for property loss, and 653rd 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 Mitchell 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 Mitchell County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

42%
51%
Property (buildings): $6.0M (42.0%)
Life safety: $1.0M (7.0%)
Agriculture: $7.3M (51.0%)

Total expected annual loss: $14,366,205 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 51% of expected annual loss in Mitchell 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
$591K
Cold Wave
$194K
Winter Weather
$57K
Heat Wave
$48K
Lightning
$39K
Strong Wind
$36K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$4.8M
Tornado
$787K
Strong Wind
$283K
Hail
$141K
Winter Weather
$13K
Ice Storm
$11K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Mitchell 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

75%
25%
Volunteer: 75% (3)
Unreported: 25% (1)
Residents per Station
2,644
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
37.8
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 4 departments registered in NERIS Public for Mitchell 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 Mitchell 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 4 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Osage Fire Department 10,575 $1.0M Very High 1
Saint Ansgar Fire Department 6,930 $638.2K Very High 1
Grafton Fire Department 3,803 $340.8K Very High 1
Riceville Fire Department 3,127 $297.5K Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

9.5%
Poverty Rate
21.7%
Age 65+
10.8%
Disability Rate
7.4%
Uninsured
74.8%
Pre-1980 Housing
2.1%
Mobile Homes
7.1%
Vacancy Rate
2.8%
Wood Heat
$74,710
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

9
Last 10 Years
15
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