Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Benson County, ND

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 74.6 Relatively High

5,808
Population
10
Departments
9
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
0.13
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
26th highest of 53
Life Safety per 100k
2.28
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
32nd highest of 53
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$1.9M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
28th highest of 53
Property Loss per Resident
$331
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
47th highest of 53

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 Benson County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 83% of the life-safety total.

Benson County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $1.9M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 53 North Dakota counties. Nationally, Benson County ranks 2384th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 499th for life safety per 100k residents, 2929th for property loss, and 1626th 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 Benson 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 Benson County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

38%
36%
26%
Property (buildings): $1.9M (38.2%)
Life safety: $1.8M (36.0%)
Agriculture: $1.3M (25.9%)

Total expected annual loss: $5,043,424 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 Benson 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
$1.5M
Winter Weather
$155K
Strong Wind
$40K
Ice Storm
$32K
Tornado
$19K
Hail
$17K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$572K
Strong Wind
$479K
Ice Storm
$265K
Wildfire
$237K
Hail
$164K
Tornado
$135K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Benson 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

10%
90%
Combination: 10% (1)
Volunteer: 90% (9)
Residents per Station
645
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
155.0
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 10 departments registered in NERIS Public for Benson County, ND. 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 Benson 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
Devils Lake Rural Fire Department 17,364 $4.4M Relatively High 1
Harvey Rural Fire Protection District 9,654 $3.7M Relatively High 1
Spirit Lake Fire Department 13,436 $3.4M Relatively High 0
Tolna Rural Fire Protection District 12,127 $2.6M Very High 1
Leeds Fire Protection District 7,720 $2.5M Relatively High 1
Maddock Rural Fire Protection District 5,932 $2.1M Very High 1
Esmond Rural Fire Protection District 4,461 $1.6M Relatively High 1
Rugby Fire Department 4,461 $1.6M Relatively High 1
Minnewaukan Fire Department 3,777 $1.3M Very High 1
Warwick Rural Fire Department 4,338 $1.2M Relatively High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

25.6%
Poverty Rate
15.9%
Age 65+
13.1%
Disability Rate
10.4%
Uninsured
68.4%
Pre-1980 Housing
14.9%
Mobile Homes
20.1%
Vacancy Rate
0.6%
Wood Heat
$60,643
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

4
Last 10 Years
19
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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