DaveC

So how safe are you?

http://sustainlane.com/article/996/U...m%92s+Way.html

I'm happy with mid table mediocrity. I moved here a couple of years after the tornado that hit downtown Fort Worth. We almost got a bit of Rita last year but that ended up missing us.

Arizona looks like the place to be!

Rankings for the 50 largest U.S. cities in order of risk of natural disaster, lowest to highest.

1. (tie) Mesa, Ariz.; Milwaukee
3. (tie) Cleveland; El Paso; Phoenix; Tucson, Ariz.
7. Colorado Springs, Colo.
8. (tie) Detroit; Fresno, Calif.; Minneapolis; Philadelphia
12. Chicago
13. Denver
14. Albuquerque
15. Las Vegas
16. San Antonio
17. Nashville
18. Atlanta
19. Omaha, Neb.
20. Austin
21. Kansas City, Mo.
22. (tie) Fort Worth, Arlington, Dallas
25. Indianapolis
26. Louisville, Ky.
27. Washington
28. Baltimore
29. Charlotte, N.C.
30. Portland, Ore.
31. San Diego
32. (tie) Boston; Jacksonville, Fla.; New York
35. (tie) Memphis; Seattle; Virginia Beach, Va.
38. Sacramento, Calif.
39. (tie) Columbus, Ohio; Oklahoma City; Tulsa, Okla.
42. Long Beach, Calif.
43. (tie) Houston; Los Angeles; San Jose, Calif.
46. Honolulu
47. San Francisco
48. Oakland, Calif.
49. New Orleans
50. Miami

SOURCE: SustainLane.com

dan_alford

Memphis comes in at 35 but I think it should be higher. We are right next to the New Madrid fault. It doesn't get as much publicity as the Californian faults but the scientists believe it will be worse than a Cali quake due to the makeup of the land ( mostly Mississipian flood plain) and the fact that there aren't building regs here for earthquakes.

Manc

Detroit is tied 8th lowest in natural disasters.........
however it is surely top of the list when it comes to man made disasters.

Jerseygirl

NJ isn't on there.

I was reading an article the other day that said current weather patterns show that the Tri State area could be hit with a major hurricane this year. Worst scenario was hitting NJ because of the high density population...said it would ruin the US economy. Would have thought a hit to NYC would be more devastating due to the high density population and low, flat lying land, surrounded by water.

Pimpbot

I live in between the 1st and 3rd, so I'm good.

britvic

35 Virginia Beach, and I'm still 40 miles from there, plus I live in a brick building, so safe enough I'd say

gruffbrown

Cool, Philly tied 8th, not many Earthquakes around here. But I guess the Delaware River could overflow.

cinnabar

I'm surprised Seattle isn't higher. As well as the earthquake/volcano erupting potential, it's also coastal and could get a tsunami.

I'm not nearly as concered about natural disasters as the likelihood of getting shot in the face by a scrote. You couldn't pay me to live in DC.

Every night on our local TV news there's a story about someone drowning in a local lake; more people seem to die that way here than by any other method. Way more, over several years, than would die in an earthquake. One of the girls I work with said she was afraid of doing various sports, like rock-climbing and hiking, because people here had died doing them this summer. I told her it was a gazillion times more dangerous to have a hobby like crossing the road once a day.

Yorkieabroad

Is Seattle considered at serious risk from tsunamis then? Being sort of tucked in and round the corner, I thought it would have been pretty well protected?

Yorkieabroad

And to answer my own question, the answer appears to be 'yes'

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/quak22.shtml

Although they appear to be talking about tsunamis generated by local earthquakes, rather than transpacific tsunamis. I think.

dgsyd1

Never was a truer word spoken! I somethimes think Detroit IS a man made disaster.

LMUK

If I remember my Discovery programme correctly - there's a massive fault called the Cascadia just off the Oregon and Washington coast that doesn't go off very often but when it does its likely to be big and cause a Tsunami.

Trouble is its so close to land there isn't much time to get away after you've recovered from the earthquake itself.

I know there's Tsunami warning systems on the Oregon coast and Oregon State Uni has a Tsunami reseach center with a fancy wave pool.

AdobePinon

Ahhhhh.... Cascadia!

Ash UK/US

I learnt recently that Michigan has the second largest amount of lighting strikes after Florida.

Ash

TouristTrap

We've got Ray, who have you got?