The question comes up regularly, "Where's the safest place to live?" At least as far as natural causes are concerned, here's one news article about one group's systematic attempt to answer that question in the United States. According to this study, California is a safe place, so I'll just stick around where I already am, thank you very much.

It's good to see some attention given to the real problems--"simple" problems like heat kills more people than any other single natural cause, and flooding causes the most monetary damage, yet neither are rarely "sexy" enough to warrant 24-hour, round-the-clock news coverage like a hurricane or a wildfire are apt to do.

My ONLY question as to weather killing people is, HOW do they calculate it? For instance, here in new england, if someone is out driving in inclement weather, loses control, and dies as a result, is that attributed to a car crash, or weather? If weather, I would break it down a little further; did that person NEED to be out (ie; going to the hospital)? Likely not.
One other thing; most people who live in those environments have learned to cope with them. Again, here in NE, we have access to good cold weather clothing, shovels, snow blowers, etc. So, the equipment is there, it comes down to someone using it.
I think the LEAST safest place to live is among people who simply are oblivious to their environment! The safest? Probably a hue commune where we can all gather together

I would think that the book, "Prudent Places" by Stan and Holly Deyo; would be a source of intelligent considerations to be looked at.

You can find more info on the book at: www.standeyo.com

See what you think about it.

Usual disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Stan or Holly Deyo, EXCEPT that I bought Holly's book, "Dare to Prepare", and found it to be an excellent primer for the prep minded individual just starting out.

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Quote from the article:
'"California is lucky because "we don't have lots of severe weather," said Kimberly Shoaf of UCLA's Center for Public Health and Disasters. "Although we have heat, it is constant heat.

"It's not the temperature itself but the difference between the average temperature and the heat extremes" that is dangerous because it catches people unprepared, she said."'
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Yup.
I am in Alberta.
I see people hop in their cars wearing light clothing when they are going to drive 100 miles across the prairie in minus 40 degree weather all the time.
If they had any sort of a problem, even just a flat tire, they stand a good chance of becoming a statistic.

Now, were they a victim of the weather or of their own stupidity?

We just had the news of 8 snowmobile enthusiasts lost to an avalanche in Fernie B.C. and then 2 skiers to avalanches at the Whistler Mountain ski resort at Vancouver. There had been avalanche warnings where the eight were lost and they knew that they were taking a risk.
The 2 skiers got caught by their stupidities by skieing on slopes that were posted as closed because of avalanche conditions.

I think an awful lot of these people are killed from their own stupidity and not from the natural hazard at all.

Edit added:
Yes to the comment about sexy news stories.
It seems a death has to be sudden, horrible, bloody and painful to be reportable. It seems to help if it is a movie star that does the dying too!
The same thing with property damage.
A flood is just not the same sort of earth shaking event that an earthquake is.

The UK should be pretty safe. No serious volcanoes, earthquakes, or hurricanes, or fierce or poisonous wild animals. We have serious tornadoes but they hardly register on most people's radar. We have flooding but that ought not kill you nowadays. We have occasional cold weather but nothing that can't be dealt with easily. We have terrorists, but they aren't statistically significant. The biggest cause of death, other than old age, is probably traffic.

Sadly, I suspect that phone call would work almost anywhere in this day and age.

It often surprises me that folks tend to be acclimatized to the threats in their region and adjust accordingly.
I was once in Pasadena, California during a very minor thunderstorm (maybe 1 or 2 lightning strikes per 5 min.). The local folks were freaking out, but three days latter when a small shake happened in the earth I was outside before the door automatically closed. (The locals were laughing, but you would be shocked how fast a fat man can run!)

Many from California would never think to live on the Gulf Coast due to hurricanes, but I haven't noticed a mass migration from the coast recently.

I guess if one is making a final move to an area this study works, but I look at some threats like a pin prick on the map and some like a shotgun blast. Geographically tornados damage a relatively small area compared to earthquakes and hurricanes. I think I will just stick with what i've got.

Okay, I'll reveal my little secret, since it looks like I won't be capitalizing on it anytime soon.

Southeast Oregon

No strategic value. Moderate weather year round. Surface and ground water. Plenty of game. Arable land. Prevailing winds preclude fallout drift.

Okay, now you know. Land is still pretty cheap out there.

This is a valid question since death certificates don't necessarily mention the weather. The death certificate may say "blunt force trauma to the head" but anyone reading it might not know that the person died when a chunk of concrete jarred loose during an earthquake fell on their head. Or the cause of death might be "heart failure" but doesn't mention that the person had been enduring a heat wave. However, there are various methodological ways to try and estimate the numbers. It may not provide an exact number, but at least if the methods are applied fairly, the resulting numbers for the different phenomena are useful.

For example, the heat wave that hit Europe in 2003 can have widely varying numbers regarding the death toll due to the way causes of death are recorded and reported in the different European countries. One later attempt to sift through the records to find heat-related deaths indicated over 50,000 deaths attributed to that one long heat wave. Fifty thousand!

And to that I say:



Stop worrying. Live here, now, while you can, where you want. This is the the life we're given, we get our time, short or long, on this earth, and we can cower like an insect under a rock or we can walk in the sun, rain, snow or highly acidic volcanic ash-storm.

Some of the best things I've ever done were "dangerous" - some of the best places I've ever gone were "dangerous" - some of the smartest people I know are "dangerous".

Most of those red areas are recreational destinations. Take a bunch of people who don't know beans about survival in the wilderness, and turn them loose wearing shorts and a t-shirt with their cell phone, headset, 16 oz water bottle into an area with trails, cliffs, bears, cougars, loose surfaces, exposed roots, etc.

They get lost, fall off a trail, break their leg, twist their ankle, hit their head, and die of exposure. So, the weather KILLED them, right?

Live in SoCal, huh? I was born and raised there. Want major problems? Turn off the water.

Sue