Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Saunders County, NE

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 80.6 Very High

23,048
Population
16
Departments
18
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
0.18
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
21st highest of 93
Life Safety per 100k
0.77
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
92nd highest of 93
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$10.0M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
13th highest of 93
Property Loss per Resident
$432
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
67th highest of 93

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 Saunders County, the largest single contributor is Tornado, 48% of the life-safety total.

Saunders County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $10.0M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 93 Nebraska counties. Nationally, Saunders County ranks 2091st of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2127th for life safety per 100k residents, 1516th for property loss, and 1090th 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 Saunders 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 Saunders County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

63%
16%
21%
Property (buildings): $10.0M (63.4%)
Life safety: $2.4M (15.6%)
Agriculture: $3.3M (21.0%)

Total expected annual loss: $15,691,312 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 21% of expected annual loss in Saunders 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
$1.2M
Strong Wind
$413K
Cold Wave
$314K
Hail
$136K
Heat Wave
$98K
Ice Storm
$96K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$6.2M
Tornado
$1.7M
Hail
$943K
Strong Wind
$590K
Wildfire
$329K
Ice Storm
$169K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Saunders 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

94%
Combination: 6% (1)
Volunteer: 94% (15)
Residents per Station
1,280
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
78.1
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 16 departments registered in NERIS Public for Saunders County, NE. 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 Saunders 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 16 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Fremont Rural Fire Department 32,603 $9.2M Relatively High 1
Ceresco Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department 22,832 $2.6M Very High 1
Linwood Volunteer Fire & Rescue 11,128 $2.0M Very High 1
Morse Bluff Volunteer Fire Department 11,338 $1.7M Very High 1
Ithaca Volunteer Fire Department 15,901 $1.7M Very High 1
Wahoo Fire And EMS Department 15,901 $1.7M Very High 2
Valparaiso Volunteer Fire Department 11,950 $1.6M Very High 1
Ashland Fire Department 12,392 $1.4M Relatively High 2
Cedar Bluffs Suburban Fire & Rescue 6,048 $1.1M Very High 1
Colon Volunteer Fire Department 8,882 $947.6K Very High 1
Malmo Fire Department 8,882 $947.6K Very High 1
Valley Fire & Rescue Department 6,918 $914.2K Very High 1
Mead Volunteer Fire Department 9,081 $895.8K Very High 1
Yutan Volunteer Fire Department 9,081 $895.8K Very High 1
Prague Fire Department 5,290 $584.8K Very High 1
Weston Volunteer Fire Department 5,290 $584.8K Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

6.3%
Poverty Rate
18.5%
Age 65+
10.5%
Disability Rate
4.2%
Uninsured
61.8%
Pre-1980 Housing
3.0%
Mobile Homes
13.4%
Vacancy Rate
2.3%
Wood Heat
$94,082
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

11
Last 10 Years
21
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