Hurricanes in the east, earthquakes in the west and tordanoes in the middle. Where should you live to avoid natural disasters?
Matthew Ericson, Joe Burgess and Bill Marsh of The New York Times created this infographic guide to find the safest and most dangerous places to live in America:
The analysis below, by Sperling’s Best Places, a publisher of city rankings, is an attempt to assess a combination of those risks in 379 American metro areas. Risks for twisters and hurricanes (including storms from hurricane remnants) are based on historical data showing where storms occurred. Earthquake risks are based on United States Geological Survey assessments and take into account the relative infrequency of quakes, compared with weather events and floods. Additional hazards included in this analysis: flooding, drought, hail and other extreme weather.
So, where should you live? The metro areas with lowest risk:
- Corvallis, Ore.
- Mt. Vernon-Anacortes, Wash.
- Bellingham, Wash.
- Wenatchee, Wash.
- Grand Junction, Colo.
- Spokane, Wash.
- Salem, Ore.
- Seattle
The highest risk:
- Dallas-Plano-Irving, Tex.
- Jonesboro, Ark.
- Corpus Christi, Tex.
- Houston
- Beaumont-Port Arthur, Tex.
- Shreveport, La.
- Austin, Tex.
- Birmingham, Ala.
Our hearts go out to the tornado victims in Joplin, Missouri, and in Oklahoma, which happened just weeks after the deadly twisters that struck six southern states. It makes one wonders, what's up with all these tornadoes?
Weather experts were at a loss to explain the deadly flurry of tornadoes, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it had found no link between the recent storms and climate change. Environmentalists disagree. Is global warming to blame?
BTW while writing this Santa Maria, a green city, had a 2.3 quake. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqscanv/
The Pacific NW is a veritable tectonic time bomb! And this report ranks it the safest. All things considered, I would rate the Four Corner states of the SW as the safest from Natural disasters.
LOL - Dallas as the most dangerous city - what garbage. The last time there was a deadly tornado in Dallas itself was in the 1950s. There are no earthquakes and hundreds of miles separate the Dallas metro area and the gulf (i.e. hurricane remnants are a non-factor.
I've lived in the Dallas area for over 30 years and have never even seen a tornado, much less been in one. I've never seen serious flooding, hurricane remnants of note, or any of this other rubbish.
I have to call B.S. on the obviously incorrect interpretation of the data used for this map. I mean, do you really think that out of all the other areas of the country that are hurricane magnets, or on active fault lines, the "highest risk" are two inland areas?
Anyone knows it is MUCH MUCH more risky to live in any costal area than a landlocked area like the DFW Metroplex.
I am in Jonesboro right now.
Glad to see that we made the list.....heh !
We did have some funky weather today, (maybe we'll get a break from it for a day or two).
We have had 2 serious tornados in the past:
1968 - 34 dead
1973 - In Jonesboro proper, only 2 fatalities...(could be wrong on that one).
It does make one think that we are overdue.
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Forget about the mountains you mentioned. Hood and Rainer are sleeping in comas, and St Helens is nothing but a minor belcher now. However, you do have a point about the fault off the coast that would cause the western part of Portland to flood from the tsunami wave. And the quake that would cause it is way overdue.
Yea, the only thing that's gonna kill Portland is the earthquake that's supposed to come and flatten the area but it isn't gonna hit us with a tsunami because Portland is 2 hours inland from the coast so unless this quake causes 2012 level tsunamis we're safe. The mountains are no worry either. If Hood ever blew it would all go east anyways like when St. Helens blew. Get some rain and some flooding but nothing like the Mississippi and thank god no tornadoes or hurricanes.
Most predictions say the trainyards in Portland will be underwater when the big one hits. Not a terrible catastrophe, but not great for people on the coast, either.
I like my chances here in safe but boring Salem OR.
I'll take a wild stab here and say this is a poor attempt by the reporter to get his insurance to drop a bit.