Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Putnam County, TN

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 54.5 Relatively Moderate

82,558
Population
11
Departments
55
Stations
18
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
0.72
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
25th highest of 95
Life Safety per 100k
0.88
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
63rd highest of 95
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$14.4M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
26th highest of 95
Property Loss per Resident
$174
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
82nd highest of 95

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 Putnam County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 36% of the life-safety total.

Putnam County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $14.4M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 95 Tennessee counties. Nationally, Putnam County ranks 788th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 1939th for life safety per 100k residents, 1160th for property loss, and 2971st 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 Putnam 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 Putnam County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

59%
41%
Property (buildings): $14.4M (59.0%)
Life safety: $9.9M (40.7%)
Agriculture: $81K (0.3%)

Total expected annual loss: $24,384,743 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.

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
$3.6M
Tornado
$3.5M
Earthquake
$1.1M
Lightning
$769K
Strong Wind
$418K
Inland Flooding
$236K

By property loss ($/yr)

Inland Flooding
$8.5M
Tornado
$2.1M
Earthquake
$1.9M
Strong Wind
$565K
Hail
$507K
Lightning
$284K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Putnam 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

9%
18%
73%
Career: 9% (1)
Combination: 18% (2)
Volunteer: 73% (8)
Residents per Station
1,501
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
66.6
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 11 departments registered in NERIS Public for Putnam County, TN. 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 Putnam 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 11 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Putnam County Fire Department 64,221 $7.5M Relatively Moderate 14
Cookeville Fire Department 56,609 $6.9M Relatively High 9
Smith County Fire Department 28,920 $4.5M Relatively High 8
DeKalb County Fire Department 33,068 $3.9M Relatively High 13
Cherry Creek Volunteer Fire Department 19,856 $2.8M Relatively High 2
Baxter Fire Department 15,277 $1.8M Relatively Moderate 1
Dodson Branch Volunteer Fire Department 15,197 $1.7M Relatively Moderate 2
Jackson County Central Fire Department 15,197 $1.7M Relatively Moderate 3
Rickman Volunteer Fire Department 9,170 $1.2M Relatively Low 1
Monterey Fire Department 5,600 $658.0K Relatively High 1
Bon De Croft Volunteer Fire Department 4,162 $605.0K Relatively High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

18.4%
Poverty Rate
16.5%
Age 65+
13.5%
Disability Rate
10.6%
Uninsured
32.1%
Pre-1980 Housing
7.9%
Mobile Homes
8.0%
Vacancy Rate
1.4%
Wood Heat
$61,416
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

9
Last 10 Years
13
Last 25 Years
Severe Storm
Most Frequent

Response-level intelligence for your region

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