Agency, Iowa
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1981. It stands in Agency Township. It lies in ZIP code area 52530. The Survey maps it on the Agency quadrangle. 620 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 810 feet above sea level.
On record in Agency
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
Chief Wapello's Memorial Parklisted 1975
Population over time
2 figuresAgency fell from 638 to 620 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 638 | |
| 2020 | 620 | -18 (-3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 10 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1954 USGS Centerville quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1956 USGS Agency quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Ottumwa South quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Centerville quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Centerville quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Centerville quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
7 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Agency between 2002 and 2018, burning about 35 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 5 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 September 2002 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Iowa State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 18 August 2002 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Iowa State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 27 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 27 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 22 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 20 March 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | 2.0 acres | Iowa State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 14 March 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
3 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Agency: 3 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rowell Farm Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Ulmer Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
37 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Agency in 37 storm reports between 1998 and 2024: 11 hail, 11 heavy rain, 10 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood. The reports record 2 deaths and 3 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2001 | Tornado (F2) | Agency | 2 killed, 3 hurt, $400,000 | Quick moving tornado, touchdown with strongest part in Agency. Nine buildings with major damage, 43 with minor. Two buildings destroyed. Two dead, three injured. |
| April 1999 | Tornado (F2) | Agency | $100,000 | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Flash Flood | Agency | $75,000 | Rural roads were flooded near Eldon. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Agency | $25,000 | A barn was blown down and several large trees were damaged. |
| August 2007 | Flash Flood | Agency | $25,000 | One foot of water was reported on Lee Avenue. |
| June 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Agency | $25,000 | no account filed |
| June 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Agency | $10,000 | Public relayed pictures of a tree that fell on and damaged part of a home. Time estimated from radar. |
| June 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Agency | $10,000 | Trained spotter report of tree branches down on a power line. Report came via social media. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Agency | $10,000 | A large tree was down in town. Report from a WHO news article. |
| August 2010 | Flash Flood | Agency | $10,000 | Resident had knee deep water on his property that runs off from the farm land near his home. He said it usually is retained by terraces and trenches in the fields but they were not able to keep up. |
| June 2008 | Hail | Agency | $10,000 | Nickel size hail was reported along with high winds. The power was knocked out. |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Agency | $10,000 | no account filed |
| September 2000 | Hail | Agency | $10,000 | no account filed |
| April 2012 | Hail | Agency | $5,000 | no account filed |
| April 2003 | Hail | Agency | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Agency | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Agency | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Agency | $5,000 | no account filed |
| March 2006 | Hail | Agency | $3,000 | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Hail | Agency | $2,000 | no account filed |
| July 2024 | Heavy Rain | Agency | - | Report of 3.11 inches of rain. |
| June 2023 | Hail | Agency | - | Trained spotter reported tennis ball sized hail. |
| August 2022 | Hail | Agency | - | Hail just under quarter sized reported with little wind. |
| June 2021 | Heavy Rain | Agency | - | Trained spotter reported via twitter that 5 inches of rain fell overnight. |
| June 2021 | Heavy Rain | Agency | - | Trained spotter reported 2.5 inches of rain in an hour. |
| June 2021 | Heavy Rain | Agency | - | A mesonet station reported 3.49 inches of rain with rain still falling. |
| June 2021 | Heavy Rain | Agency | - | Public report of 4.7 inches of rain relayed via broadcast media. |
| April 2019 | Hail | Agency | - | Trained spotter reported penny sized hail. |
| August 2018 | Heavy Rain | Agency | - | Trained spotter reported heavy rainfall of 2.10 inches. |
| August 2018 | Heavy Rain | Agency | - | CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 2.07 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| May 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Agency | - | Trained spotter reported an estimated gust of around 60 mph. |
| March 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Agency | - | Public reported a large pine tree uprooted. |
| July 2016 | Heavy Rain | Agency | - | Trained spotter reported heavy rainfall of 1.10 inches since 8 am. |
| November 2015 | Heavy Rain | Agency | - | CoCoRaHS observer reported heavy rainfall of 2.35 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| September 2014 | Heavy Rain | Agency | - | Rainfall total for the past 24 hours was 2.50 inches. |
| August 2014 | Heavy Rain | Agency | - | Rainfall of 3.00 inches in the past 24 hours. |
| June 2000 | Hail | Agency | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cliffland | 2.3 miles | 10 | |
| Loch Burns | 3.1 miles | 9 | |
| East Ottumwa | 3.9 miles | 9 | |
| Ashland | 4.5 miles | 7 | |
| Yampa | 4.5 miles | 7 | |
| Bladensburg | 5.1 miles | 7 | |
| Dahlonega | 5.5 miles | 9 | |
| Ottumwa | 5.8 miles | 9 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Agency | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q430704 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 454105. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.





