Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Blue Earth County, MN

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 66.0 Relatively High

69,871
Population
17
Departments
20
Stations
16
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
0.94
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
12th highest of 87
Life Safety per 100k
1.35
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
32nd highest of 87
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$18.3M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
21st highest of 87
Property Loss per Resident
$262
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
76th highest of 87

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 Blue Earth County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 77% of the life-safety total.

Blue Earth County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $18.3M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 87 Minnesota counties. Nationally, Blue Earth County ranks 616th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1202nd for life safety per 100k residents, 957th for property loss, and 2181st 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 Blue Earth 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 Blue Earth County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

55%
39%
Property (buildings): $18.3M (55.1%)
Life safety: $12.9M (38.7%)
Agriculture: $2.0M (6.1%)

Total expected annual loss: $33,249,247 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 6% of expected annual loss in Blue Earth 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
$10.0M
Heat Wave
$930K
Tornado
$750K
Strong Wind
$735K
Winter Weather
$354K
Hail
$77K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$11.8M
Tornado
$2.9M
Strong Wind
$2.4M
Hail
$900K
Winter Weather
$251K
Ice Storm
$91K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Blue Earth 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

24%
71%
Combination: 6% (1)
Volunteer: 24% (4)
Unreported: 71% (12)
Residents per Station
3,494
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
28.6
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 17 departments registered in NERIS Public for Blue Earth County, MN. 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 Blue Earth 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 17 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
New Ulm Fire Department 22,444 $9.0M Relatively High 1
Mankato Fire Department 38,726 $7.1M Relatively High 3
St. Clair Fire Department 27,425 $5.1M Relatively High 1
Eagle Lake Volunteer Fire Department 16,169 $2.9M Relatively High 1
Kasota Fire Department 16,462 $2.2M Relatively High 1
Pemberton Fire Department 12,885 $2.0M Relatively High 1
Lake Crystal Fire Department 8,804 $1.7M Relatively Moderate 1
Nicollet Fire Department 9,833 $1.4M Very High 1
Good Thunder Fire Department 6,238 $1.2M Relatively High 1
North Mankato Fire Department 8,377 $1.2M Relatively Moderate 2
Madison Lake Fire Department 5,481 $1.0M Relatively High 1
Mapleton Fire Department 3,462 $626.9K Relatively High 1
South Bend Township Fire Department 2,901 $556.9K Relatively High 1
Amboy Fire Department 2,528 $482.6K Relatively High 1
Vernon Center Fire Department 2,528 $482.6K Relatively High 1
Courtland Fire Department 3,358 $463.8K Very High 1
Lafayette Fire Department 3,358 $463.8K Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

15.7%
Poverty Rate
15.3%
Age 65+
11.7%
Disability Rate
4.3%
Uninsured
52.1%
Pre-1980 Housing
4.9%
Mobile Homes
7.6%
Vacancy Rate
1.1%
Wood Heat
$77,183
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

6
Last 10 Years
13
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