Arborlook
Risk & Response
by Arborlook Insights

Wharton County, TX

Community risk profile | NRI Score: 88.8 Very High

41,794
Population
9
Departments
8
Stations
12
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
0.78
expected fatality-equivalents per year, natural hazards only
67th highest of 254
Life Safety per 100k
1.86
natural hazard fatality-equivalents per 100,000 residents
67th highest of 254
Natural Hazard Property Loss
$21.1M
expected building loss per year, natural hazards only
45th highest of 254
Property Loss per Resident
$505
natural hazard building loss per resident per year
44th 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 Wharton County, the largest single contributor is Cold Wave, 56% of the life-safety total.

Wharton County carries an expected under 1 natural hazard fatality-equivalents and $21.1M in building loss per year. Rank chips compare the 254 Texas counties. Nationally, Wharton County ranks 742nd of 3,222 U.S. counties for life-safety loss, 725th for life safety per 100k residents, 849th for property loss, and 845th 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 Wharton 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 Wharton County See what a department sees

What Drives the Loss

60%
30%
9%
Property (buildings): $21.1M (60.2%)
Life safety: $10.6M (30.4%)
Agriculture: $3.3M (9.4%)

Total expected annual loss: $35,020,951 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 9% of expected annual loss in Wharton 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
$6.0M
Tornado
$1.6M
Heat Wave
$985K
Inland Flooding
$705K
Hurricane
$680K
Lightning
$333K

By property loss ($/yr)

Hurricane
$12.2M
Inland Flooding
$8.1M
Tornado
$354K
Hail
$241K
Strong Wind
$82K
Wildfire
$30K

Census Tract Risk Map

Shaded by quintile across the census tracts in Wharton 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

100%
Volunteer: 100% (9)
Residents per Station
5,224
census population per registered station
Stations per 100k
19.1
registered stations per 100,000 residents

Department composition covers the 9 departments registered in NERIS Public for Wharton 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 Wharton 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 9 departments
Department Est. Population Life-Safety Loss NRI Rating Stations
Wharton Volunteer Fire Department 27,102 $7.2M Very High 1
El Campo Fire Department 20,132 $4.8M Very High 1
Hungerford Volunteer Fire Department 9,894 $2.9M Very High 0
Beasley Community Volunteer Fire Department 19,964 $2.2M Relatively High 1
Garwood Volunteer Fire Department 6,322 $1.5M Very High 1
Boling Fire Department 3,791 $1.0M Very High 1
Wallis Volunteer Fire Department 2,508 $605.9K Relatively High 1
Louise Volunteer Fire Department 2,293 $555.5K Very High 1
Orchard Volunteer Fire Department 4,290 $436.0K Very High 1
No departments match your search.

Risk Snapshot

13.6%
Poverty Rate
18.2%
Age 65+
14.4%
Disability Rate
14.2%
Uninsured
50.7%
Pre-1980 Housing
10.3%
Mobile Homes
10.3%
Vacancy Rate
0.2%
Wood Heat
$69,430
Median HH Income

FEMA Disaster Declarations

9
Last 10 Years
19
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.

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