Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Natural Disasters

Nothing is scarier than the unpredictable and uncontrollable wrath of Mother Nature. Natural disasters traumatize minds, destroy property, and end lives. As I watch the endless coverage of hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanoes, and Tsunamis, I am thankful for living in Virginia. I’ve always considered Virginia a safe place to live. Besides an occasional tornado, snow storm, or tail end of a hurricane, we are usually safe from natural disasters. Despite the recent Tsunami warning (that did not actually create any large waves), Honolulu Hawaii is one of the safest places to live. According to Forbes, “between 1972 and 2000, Hawaii had a total of 12 major disasters declared, according to the Federal Emergency Management Administration. That's relatively low, especially compared to states like Texas, where 51 major disasters were declared in the same period, or California, which had 45.” On the opposite end of the spectrum, Monroe, Louisiana was ranked as the most unsafe place to live. Monroe is constantly battling high winds, hail, and severe storms. And since it is a coastal area, they must also face the occasional hurricane. If you would like to see Forbes’ list of safest places to live go to http://www.forbes.com/2005/08/29/cx_sc_0830homeslide.html?thisSpeed=6000 . Do you feel safe where you live?

Grab a latte, put up your feet, and join the discussion!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Basically I feel safe from most natural disasters but there is a chance for a tornado now and then.

Unknown said...

I live in the south, but not around a coastal area so I'm pretty safe! Still scared to death of tornados though, we seem to get one every year and last season one hit in my county. Thankfully we were not affected, but a few people died.

Kara said...

Well, I live in Texas so I guess I shouldn't feel safe but I do. We have tornados - we have a storm shelter and amazing warning systems. We have prarie fires-but during high risk times everyone is on alert. We have dust stroms, so you stay inside. We have hail, but that's why you have insurance. And we're far from the coast so no worry of tsumami's or hurricanes. And to be honest I love the varying weather, I think people who live here do. We'd probably be bored if we lived somewhere else:) LOL

CaneWife said...

Sorta kinda. We just moved from Hurricane Central to an area that gets a lot of tornado warnings. At least with hurricanes, you have time to prepare. Tornadoes scare the poo out of me.