Hurricanes, floods, fires: which US states are most prone to natural disasters - ForumDaily
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Hurricanes, floods, fires: which US states are most prone to natural disasters

Under the influence of climate change, natural disasters across the United States are becoming more extreme, more costly and more deadly. Reader's Digest.

Photo: Shutterstock

The country is in danger

It's unlikely that you clicked on a link about disaster-prone states and expected good news. There really won't be many of them. While extreme weather events are nothing new, they are on the rise in the United States and around the world. For example, June 2020 was the third hottest on record (tied with 2015, and led by 2019 and 2016), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Other weather-related events are also depressing.

There are many ways to calculate what makes the “worst” weather, such as the increase in the number or severity of natural disasters from year to year, the financial impact, the number of people displaced, and human deaths. Below we will consider the states that, in one way or another, are considered the most prone to various natural disasters.

Severe weather in general

Texas, which is prone to floods, hurricanes, and even winter storms, is the winner in this category by a number of estimates. And according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the state has already been impacted by five extreme weather events in 2020, from high winds and hail, which also hit the wide swath of the Midwest and Ohio Valley in March, to a tornado in late May, and (just a week later) a massive hailstorm in South Texas that caused $ 1,2 billion in damage. Add in the period from 2015 to 2019 and you have 20 more severe droughts, severe storms, tornadoes, floods and tons of other natural events.

The state also boasts the second most expensive natural disaster ever to hit the United States, with Hurricane Harvey in 2017 being the second-deadliest after Katrina in 2005.

Floods

The states that are most vulnerable to hurricanes are most often affected by flooding. Texas and Florida's Gulf Coast undoubtedly have more of them, as well as the Mississippi River area. Let's not forget about flood-prone Louisiana, a third of which experienced a historic amount of rain and flood in August 2016 with more than 31 inches of rain (79 cm) in the city of Watson in 72 hours. According to NOAA, 50 homes were destroyed, 13 people died and the state suffered nearly $ 11 billion in damage.

Hurricanes

Is Florida the Hurricane Capital of the United States? Maybe. Hurricane Irma sustained maximum sustained winds of 185 mph (298 kph) for 37 hours in 2017, devastating the Florida Keys. And in 2018, Hurricane Michael, the first Category 5 storm to hit the U.S. mainland since Andrew in 1992, produced storm surges of more than 15 feet, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions reports. Michael also killed 49 people. Thanks to its hurricanes, Florida has the second-highest total loss from natural disasters—$225 billion—after Texas, when calculated over the past 40 years.

On the subject: What if you live in a state where there are hurricanes

Lightning strikes

Here again, Florida is the big winner - it's not for nothing that this state is called the Lightning Capital. Based on density (that is, the most lightning strikes per square mile), Florida came in at 228 in 2019. To put this into more understandable numbers, Texas wins with 47 total lightning strikes in 397. And while lightning may look cool from the outside, a single strike carries a core temperature of 975 degrees Fahrenheit (2019 Celsius). Not only can it kill you by causing a heart attack, but it can also lead to devastating fires and damage to structures, according to a warning from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 50% of lightning strikes on people result in death. There were 000 lightning-related deaths in the United States in 27; 760 deaths each occurred in Florida and Texas. And yes, it is dangerous to shower during a thunderstorm.

Fires

Have you thought of California as the state most devastated by wildfires? If so, then you are right. Year after year, California continues to experience devastating fires. In 2015, the state suffered $1 billion in damage from wildfires; 44 people died as a result of fires that swept through the state from the summer to fall of 2017; and 106 people died and nearly 1,7 million acres burned in the historic 2018 fires. Although 2019 was not as deadly, the fires caused billions of dollars in damage. Fires are a natural occurrence in the West, but man-made climate change is increasing their severity and extending the season.

Drought

Drought is increasing in many states in the southwest and plains and is causing huge losses in agriculture. But California has been hit hardest lately (and it also contributes to fires). Beginning in 2012, California entered a so-called five-year drought period, although the state experienced its longest drought period, 376 weeks, from December 2011 to March 2019. Other states were also hit hard in those years (Oregon, Nevada, Texas and Arizona). California also experienced the most severe drought conditions of any affected state in 2015, and by 2016 more than 100 million trees had died due to water shortages.

Heat

The southwestern part of the country "wins" among those affected by too high air temperatures in a number of categories: for example, in the number of heat waves, as well as in the length of the heat season. And according to NOAA, Louisiana and Florida are pretty close to being number one in this regard. Globally, 2019 was the second hottest year on record (after 2016). And while a variety of states hit record heat levels this year, perhaps one of the most troubling facts was the heat wave in Alaska, which “returned to days of record-high average temperatures across the state,” the New York Times writes. This is an alarming trend because warming in the northern part of the world means melting sea ice, which has many negative consequences for the planet.

Winter storms

Since 2015, the Northeast has experienced the country's costliest winter storms each year (together they've cost nearly $7 billion), although choosing which state gets hit hardest is a difficult task. However, one of the leaders is Massachusetts, which was hit hard in 2015 by massive and destructive snowfall in February, followed by a blizzard in 2016 and two major snowstorms in 2018.

On the subject: How to insure home and property from floods in the US

Tornadoes

The United States experiences the most severe tornadoes of any country in the world, and the country even has a region named just for the tornadoes: Tornado Alley, which is generally considered to be made up of parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, and South Dakota. In terms of numbers, Texas typically sees the most tornadoes per year—by some accounts there were 2019 in 140. But that same year, two other states hit record numbers: Oklahoma with 149 tornadoes and four deaths, and Mississippi with 115 tornadoes. The Weather Channel reports.

Volcanic eruptions

Although volcanic eruptions have nothing to do with climate change, it is worth mentioning. There are 169 volcanoes in the United States that are considered "active" by the American Institute of Geological Sciences, most of which are located in Alaska and do not pose a huge threat to the public. But the Pacific Northwest also has its share of volcanoes, including Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier, Mount Hood and Mount Shasta. Mount St. Helens, which last erupted in 2008, was also the site of the deadliest eruption in US history in 1980, which killed 57 people, which is reason enough to rank Washington as the deadliest state by this metric. But the most potentially devastating threat could be from Kilauea, which would pass the torch to the state of Hawaii. The USGS ranks Kilauea number one in the "very high threat" category (Mount St. Helens is number two), according to National Geographic, thanks in part to the large lava flows it erupted from May to August 2018.

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