Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Hidalgo County, TX

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 67.4 Relatively High

891,977
Population
23
Departments
74
Stations
212
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
6.78
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
11th highest of 254
Life Safety per 100k
0.76
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
207th highest of 254
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$177.9M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
9th highest of 254
Property Loss per Resident
$199
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
198th highest of 254

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 Hidalgo County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 63% of the life-safety total.

Hidalgo County carries an expected 7 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $177.9M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 254 Texas counties. Nationally, Hidalgo County ranks 68th of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 2146th for life safety per 100k residents, 111th for property loss, and 2766th 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 Hidalgo 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 Hidalgo County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

57%
30%
13%
Property (buildings): $177.9M (57.4%)
Life safety: $92.9M (30.0%)
Agriculture: $38.9M (12.6%)

Total expected annual loss: $309,750,506 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 13% of expected annual loss in Hidalgo 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
$58.1M
Heat Wave
$13.5M
Hurricane
$12.7M
Tornado
$6.0M
Lightning
$636K
Strong Wind
$368K

By property loss ($/yr)

Hurricane
$112.2M
Inland Flooding
$51.3M
Hail
$9.3M
Tornado
$1.7M
Ice Storm
$1.6M
Strong Wind
$688K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Hidalgo 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%
48%
43%
Career: 9% (2)
Combination: 48% (11)
Volunteer: 43% (10)
Residents per Station
12,054
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
8.3
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 23 departments registered in NERIS Public for Hidalgo County, TX. 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 Hidalgo 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 23 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Edinburg Fire Department 159,358 $16.3M Relatively High 5
Mcallen Fire Department 134,056 $14.1M Relatively Moderate 8
Mission Fire Department 100,632 $10.6M Relatively High 11
Crosby Volunteer Fire Department 66,395 $9.6M Relatively High 5
Weslaco Fire Department 78,631 $8.1M Relatively High 9
Alton Volunteer Fire Department 71,042 $7.6M Relatively High 2
Pharr Fire Rescue 70,577 $7.5M Relatively High 10
Briaroaks Fire Department 50,308 $7.5M Relatively High 3
La Casita Volunteer Fire Department 23,449 $6.6M Very High 2
Donna Volunteer Fire Department 59,558 $6.5M Relatively High 2
Orange County Emergency Services District #1 37,702 $6.3M Relatively High 2
San Juan Fire Rescue 47,383 $5.0M Relatively High 2
Alamo Fire Department 42,791 $4.7M Relatively High 1
Mercedes Fire/Ems Department 39,700 $3.9M Very High 2
Palmview Volunteer Fire Department 30,691 $3.2M Relatively High 1
La Feria Fire & Rescue 25,132 $2.9M Relatively High 1
City Of Elsa Fire Department 26,372 $2.9M Relatively High 1
Lajoya Volunteer Fire Department 28,625 $2.9M Very High 1
Lasara Volunteer Fire Department 2,522 $1.1M Very High 1
Sullivan City Volunteer Fire Department 9,970 $1.1M Very High 1
La Villa Volunteer Fire Department 7,716 $792.0K Very High 1
Edcouch Fire Department 5,017 $561.9K Relatively High 2
Linn-San Manuel Volunteer Fire Department 1,419 $201.5K Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

26.7%
Poverty Rate
11.7%
Age 65+
13.2%
Disability Rate
28.2%
Uninsured
17.7%
Pre-1980 Housing
13.9%
Mobile Homes
12.4%
Vacancy Rate
0.0%
Wood Heat
$56,481
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

10
Last 10 Years
24
Last 25 Years
Hurricane
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