Death map (knock on wood) does not pinpoint Southern California
Hold on for dear life. If flooding doesn't get us, a major earthquake will -- and soon!
We in Southern California have been jinxed. A study by researchers at the University of South Carolina has labeled this a safe haven, in terms of natural disasters, compared with many other parts of the country.
Seriously, who'd have thought hellish heat and drought, in this era of air-conditioning and plumbing, would be more deadly than earthquakes? Those two events caused 19.6% of total deaths from natural hazards from 1970 through 2004, according to the research team.
Summer thunderstorms caused 18.8% of natural hazard fatalities and severe winter weather (not the comparatively mild kind we're now experiencing) caused 18.1%
Earthquakes, wildfires and hurricanes combined were responsible for less than 5% percent of natural hazard fatalities.
Essentially, if you want to avoid being killed by Mother Nature you want to avoid much of the South and the Great Plains states, where heat and severe weather provide a perilous one-two punch. The south-central United States, with its floods and tornadoes, is another place to steer clear of.
Thomas H. Maugh II and Mary Engel have covered the details of the study in a fine article for the Los Angeles Times.
Please read it carefully, then knock on wood.
-- Pete Thomas
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