# States most at risk for disaster



## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

http://www.allproudamericans.com/States-Most-at-Risk-of-Disaster.html



> Disasters can happen at any time and anywhere. But some places experience more than their fair share of floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, winter storms and severe weather -- so much so that certain locales earn frightening nicknames such as Tornado Alley. That moniker applied to Moore, Okla., long before the latest deadly twister struck May 20, killing 24 people. Four tornadoes have hit the town since 1998.
> Kiplinger.com worked with the Property Claim Services unit of Verisk Analytics, a leading source of insurance risk information, to identify the ten states that have suffered the biggest property losses from disasters over the past decade.
> 
> 1. Louisiana
> ...


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## zracer7 (Apr 17, 2012)

Would the states' size be considered in this study? Seems like the probability of disaster per acre of land each state has would be a factor too. Texas is a big state with coastal risks and territories that stretch into tornado alley. But I am sure there are places within the state that go untouched whereas you are pretty much screwed in smaller states.


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## neldarez (Apr 10, 2011)

Sentry18 said:


> http://www.allproudamericans.com/States-Most-at-Risk-of-Disaster.html


glad I live in Washington state!


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## AdmiralD7S (Dec 6, 2012)

zracer7 said:


> Would the states' size be considered in this study?


Looks as if they're using the value of the damage as the primary metric. Totaling 100 nice cars in Florida/Texas/etc is a lot more expensive than hitting 100 Amish buggies in the corn belt.


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## CrackbottomLouis (May 20, 2012)

Why would tropical storms and hurricanes be an issue in Tennessee? Tennessee is land locked and at least a large state away from the coast in each direction.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

CrackbottomLouis said:


> Why would tropical storms and hurricanes be an issue in Tennessee? Tennessee is land locked and at least a large state away from the coast in each direction.


Tropical storms/hurricanes can cause devastating damages inland from the coastal regions. Damages include flooding, high winds, and torrential rains.

Ike comes to mind ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_Hurricane_Ike_in_inland_North_America


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

neldarez said:


> glad I live in Washington state!


We can't hide from Mother Nature ...

http://www.seattle-tourist.com/seattle-weather-extremes.html

I did like this ... (from the link.)

These Seattle weather extremes don't happen too often so you'll probably be OK


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

(From a monetary standpoint....)

What's worse is; Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have such low GDP's that they are net losers to the union. It costs the USA a lot more money to keep them around than what they contribute. 

Texas all by itself would be the 9th wealthiest country in the world. Lou, Miss and Ala in a country by themselves would be nearly second/third world.


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## CrackbottomLouis (May 20, 2012)

*Andi said:


> Tropical storms/hurricanes can cause devastating damages inland from the coastal regions. Damages include flooding, high winds, and torrential rains.
> 
> Ike comes to mind ...
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_Hurricane_Ike_in_inland_North_America


Thanks for the link.


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## JayJay (Nov 23, 2010)

8. Tennessee

Types of Disasters (2003-12):
1 tropical storm
3 hurricanes
5 winter storms and 31 severe weather incidents

Estimated Insured Property Loss: $7.7 billion

Flood isn't listed specifically, but it was a huge loss in Nashville, in 2010.

I surely think hurricane meant to be tornado??


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

I find it interesting that the only places where power outages are listed as disasters is in NY and NJ.


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## jeff47041 (Jan 5, 2013)

I never understand the whole disaster area thing. About 16 years ago, straight line winds tore my house apart. Siding was gone, roof was gone, outbuildings were gone, and a line of 6 electric poles were snapped off even with the ground. That was a disaster for my wife, my kids, and I.

We were stupidly uninsured. That's our own fault. And it cost us a lot of money to do repairs. But we didn't get any aid or federal money to rebuild (Didn't ask for any). All of my neighbors and family came to help make repairs. But I'm talking about money.

I've just never understood how it is decided what is a disaster for one area and not another. I always see this on the news, and I really do feel for communities that get hit and are just torn to pieces. But when it happens to one or two houses, it's not considered a disaster. But those families think so.


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## Jimthewagontraveler (Feb 8, 2012)

A huricane in Missouri ?
Guess I was asleep.


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## MDsapper (Mar 12, 2013)

Caribou said:


> I find it interesting that the only places where power outages are listed as disasters is in NY and NJ.


thats cuz of the baby boom that happens 9 months after the outage


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Jimthewagontraveler said:


> A huricane in Missouri ?
> Guess I was asleep.


From the link on Ike ...

Parts of Missouri, particularly around St. Louis, sustained major flooding. In St. Charles County, the Missouri River reached well above flood stage with forecasts as high as 11 feet (3.4 m) above flood stage, and seven private levees were threatened. Another hard-hit community was Arnold, where the Meramec River threatened to reach major flood stage for the third time in 2008, although sandbags were still up from the March flood there.[9] The high winds in southeastern Missouri, particularly the Bootheel, also blew corn stalks down and caused severe damage to crops.[10] The winds and rain knocked out power to about 85,000 customers in Missouri.[11]

A woman was also struck and killed by a large tree limb in Ladue, Missouri, and two bodies of a man and a woman who presumably drowned were found in University City, Missouri, outside of St. Louis.[12] Another drowning took place in floodwaters in Columbia, Missouri.[13]


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## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

Caribou said:


> I find it interesting that the only places where power outages are listed as disasters is in NY and NJ.


Thomas Edison was from NJ, so NY and NJ have the oldest electricity infrastructure in the country, and that infrastructure is not maintained adequately. Toss in Sandy this past year and you get power outages at the top of the list.

Personally I would list the politics of both states too, but your opinion may vary.


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## trooper0366 (Sep 27, 2012)

They didn't list the 'tsunami' we had when Ameron UE's hydro-electric reservoir overflowed and wiped out Johnson Shut-In's State Park. We waiting for a volcano to be next.


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

Glad to be in Oregon with just my volcanoes :woohoo::woohoo: !!!!


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## Jerry D Young (Jan 28, 2009)

I'll stay in Reno for a while, I think. And just FYI, I was living in the Bootheel back in the 70s & 80s and we'd occasionally have the edge of a hurricane slap us, and a couple of times the remnants went right over us.

Just my opinion.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

I'm in Pittsburgh, PA. In '04 I was installing ductwork for a living and one of our jobs was at PITT University building a new boiler house. We were hit by a hurricane (I forget which one and I'm too lazy right now to google it) and all hell broke loose. I've never seen that kind of rain. The building didn't have windows yet, just visqueen sheeting over open holes in the walls, and the building itself started to flood. They sent us home early that day and my 1 hour commute took 3 due to flooding and closed roads. I thought a few times I might not be able to get home. At the time I was active with a fire company and on my way home the pager just went nuts with an "all call" telling all responders to go to their stations. We cut downed trees and pumped basements until 2AM the following day.

That's the worst I remember. We've had smaller events since then; nothing has been that bad. That's been 9 years. So while it's not frequent, hurricanes can be a real threat here this far North and inland.


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## pandamonium (Feb 6, 2011)

Caribou said:


> I find it interesting that the only places where power outages are listed as disasters is in NY and NJ.


I think this is because of the amazing number of people in these states that are completely helpless when the power goes out. Most can't find their arse with two hands and a flashlight when the power is ON!!

A large part of being a "disaster area" has to do with the Governor of the state claiming disaster so they can get federal funds.


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## dixiemama (Nov 28, 2012)

Before last year, I wld have said 'economic disaster' was our greatest threat; now its weather. The tornados that ripped through Magoffin County KY were literally 15 miles from my home. I heard them from my back field. You can still see the damage today. 

Our home is very sturdy and protected to an extent because of its location, but its still something I worry about


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## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

pandamonium said:


> I think this is because of the amazing number of people in these states that are completely helpless when the power goes out. Most can't find their arse with two hands and a flashlight when the power is ON!!
> 
> A large part of being a "disaster area" has to do with the Governor of the state claiming disaster so they can get federal funds.


I live in NJ, west of NYC. You are not only correct, but our first responders are generally not very bright. For instance, a tree falls across a power line. A cop verifies that there is indeed a tree across the power line. The power company sends someone to turn off the power to that location and then leaves. The town Maintenance crews come cut up the tree and remove it. Now someone from the power company returns to actually repair the power line. During Sandy we had 45,000 of these in northern NJ and people were surprised at how long it took to get the power back.

Want to guess how much discussion there is of putting the power lines underground?


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## Preppersam (Aug 2, 2013)

I live in TN, number 8 on that list.

We've had some tornadoes, floods, some crazy storms in the past few years.

But what probably got us into that list was a huge hail storm we had. 

The hail was so bad it put hundreds of dents in everyone's cars including mine. And the entire town had to get their roofs redone.


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## BillS (May 30, 2011)

I live in Wisconsin. We get tornadoes here once in a great while but they're never greater than an F1. We don't get freezing rain very often either. Oshkosh has had some heavy rains and some flooded basements from to time. Over the years there have been some severe thunderstorms that knocked down branches and the power went down. But nothing catastrophic.


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