The Worst States for Natural Disasters

Name: The Worst States for Natural Disasters | Open Video
Uploaded: 2020-09-26T17:37:21+00:00
Duration: 15 min 23 s

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Fire season, tornado season, hurricane season, flooding season, riot season
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Seems like there's a season for everything in America, doesn't it? Because of our unique geographical and meteorological situation
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the United States is a sitting duck for natural weather phenomena. Tornadoes thrive here, hurricanes steer here, it rains a ton
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and the West Coast is set up perfectly for hot, windy fire seasons every single fall
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Of all the countries with the most natural disasters, only China and India have more of them
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Why? Well, just like us, these countries have large populations on the coast
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and they're prone to earthquakes, tropical storms, and flooding. Sort of just bad luck in terms of where you're located on the planet, I guess
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Anyways, we're talking about our country, so back to that. Here in the U.S., when you're measuring the total number of natural disasters
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there's 10 states which are responsible for a third of disasters and damages
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Of course, many of these are going to be the biggest states and the most populated states. So grab your get out bag and get the insurance company on speed dial
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We're going to talk about the disaster capitals of America. And yes, this is a iPhone 4 or 3
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I'm not sure, but clearly it doesn't work anymore. Whoa, what is that
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A monsoon? Ah, run! Oh no, grab the trailer park! Ah! We're in New Mexico
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a state that you might not think of when you think of natural disasters, but they have a ton of them here
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The 10th most on average every year. New Mexico just edges out Oregon and Washington
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for the 10th most natural disasters here in the U.S. Monsoons hit the southwestern U.S. every summer
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particularly in Arizona and in New Mexico. These are huge thunderstorms caused by a bunch of complicated weather terms
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and patterns that I won't bore you with, but the damage is pretty extensive
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Monsoon flooding takes out entire small towns, and the lightning kills people
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Now these are not to be confused with the Haboob, or intense dust storm. They look like this. They also suck. Besides monsoons, New Mexico gets its
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fair share of earthquakes and tornadoes. Actually, while researching this stuff, I came across this
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really cool disaster map. Look. New Mexico isn't just impacted by monsoons. They get wildfires
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thunderstorms. We talked about that. Flash floods. Okay, we talked about that too. And earthquakes
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Okay. New Mexico gets a lot of stuff. But you can see on this cool map all the random scary
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natural disasters that hit every region of the country. The West Coast gets tsunamis. Apparently
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Wisconsin doesn't flood. How do they get out of floods? Earthquakes are only here. Okay
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this thing sucks. Never mind. I'll put a link to it in the description, even though it's apparently
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broken. Our next state that suffers from the most natural disasters is Arkansas
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as if they didn't have enough to deal with here. And by the way, that number here stands for the
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number of natural disaster declarations that have happened here since records began in 1953
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So Arkansas has seen 76 natural disasters. Heavy rain and flooding has been a nightmare here
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That's because Arkansas is towards the bottom of the Mississippi River. And so it takes the brunt
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of that river's overflows every year when torrential rains slam the upper Midwest like an angry god
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And all that water has to go somewhere people And sometimes it winds up in Arkansas Walmarts and in its trailer parks and in other places too And the rain doesn just happen upstream either no Being inland from the
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Gulf, Arkansas has sort of a bullseye on it for tropical storm remnants. When hurricanes slam the
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coast, they have to go somewhere and a lot of times they inundate Arkansas with days and days
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of torrential rain and it's just miserable here. Now before we move on for some perspective
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Let's compare Arkansas to the states with the least number of natural disasters
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Delaware and Rhode Island, which have 22 each, maybe because they're so small
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Wyoming has only had 36, but 20 of those were from fires, so I don't know if that really counts
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South Carolina surprisingly hasn't had that many either, despite being right in the bullseye of Hurricane Alley. Interesting
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The disaster roster in Kentucky is pretty diverse and includes landslides and mudslides and rock
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slides and flooding and tornadoes, and also biological toxic substances and other, which is
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kind of scary. I don't know what other would be, but it sounds bad. Notable disasters that
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Kentuckians might remember. Way back in 2008, the remnants of Hurricane Ike made this a miserable
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place for weeks. That sucked. But snowstorms have caused huge issues here too. In 2004, a record
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snowfall hit the area before Christmas and it was such a big deal. Two guys wrote this giant
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report on it, which is way too long to read. But after skimming it, I can tell you it was a big
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deal. And I'm guessing many people died and had their cars buried and that many people lost power
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and missed work. And that was just a terrible, terrible time for them. Did you know the biggest
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snowstorm on record came in 1959 in Mount Shasta in California? I did not know that, Mappy, but I'm
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looking it up right now. And yeah, 189 inches in one storm is a lot, Mappy. This guy was standing
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next to a power pole like he's a giant. Look at him. I see Mappy's wearing his mask. That's so
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responsible of him. Such a rule follower Mappy is, huh? Of course, Louisiana's on here. This is home
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to Hurricane Katrina, which will live on as the most infamous hurricane in American history until
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another one comes that's even bigger. Katrina smacked this state like it owed her money
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Louisiana still hasn't recovered from Hurricane Katrina, which killed almost 1,000 people and caused tens of billions in damage
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and sent residents fleeing all the way to Alaska. Many of them still live in the Houston metro area
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This Gulf state's been hit by numerous hurricanes over the years. Rita, Ike, Betsy, Juan, Camille, Flossie
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That's a hurricane? I thought that was a dance. Florence, Florence again
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Nate, Isidore, Ida, Hilda, Umberto. Okay, there's been a lot. And there's going to be a bunch more
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you can never rest easy when you live in the Big Easy. And apparently two snow-related natural disasters messed up Louisiana
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although I bet those were probably like two-inch snowstorms because people in the South can't drive in the snow and you can't blame them for that
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In all, Louisiana has had 87 natural disasters in her recorded history
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which is far more than once a year, people. Right next door is Alabama
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Okay, not right next door, but close. Alabama's been battered by hurricanes
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including many of the same ones we mentioned already. But tornadoes are a big deal here now as well
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In April 2011 alone, a series of tornado outbreaks lashed this state
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and killed 250 people and caused a bunch of damage. You see, tornadoes are a big deal in Alabama now
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Tornado Alley used to be in Oklahoma and Kansas, but it's moving
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Now it's more Alabama and Mississippi. They call this Dixie Alley. Tornadoes suck
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If you have a lot of stuff, they'll take it. If you don't have a lot of stuff, they'll take it
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Nappy says if we ever have a tornado, I should get water and bread. No you don do that when a tornado is coming You do that when a hurricane is coming And you live in North Carolina There aren any tornadoes here Or are there Oh I guess we do have them 31 a year Huh Well
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I've never seen one here before, but then again, I haven't seen a lot of things here, especially a drought. It's been raining nonstop here for like the last month. I wish it would stop
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New York sure has been beat up by Mother Nature. It's mostly blizzards and tropical storms here
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though this state's seen other natural disasters, including an earthquake and one human cause
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which was the terrorist attacks in 2001. But I don't know how that's classified as a natural
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disaster, but it was a sad, sad time for this country. In 2012, Superstorm Sandy killed nearly
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50 people and caused 40 billion in damage. Sometimes hurricanes make their way all the way
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up to the East Coast, and you probably didn't know that. And then there's Nor'easters, which are sort
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like hurricanes, but they like cold air as opposed to hurricanes, which love warm air
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Nor'easters are mean. They can really wreck a place in a bad way with the blizzards and the
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heavy winds they carry in. You do not want to get stuck in one of those suckers, I'll tell you
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Florida clearly has FEMA on speed dial. The weather here is almost as crazy as the people
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Many of this state's natural disasters have been fires, but 44 of them have been hurricanes
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by far the most of any other state. Dozens of tropical systems have destroyed the state over the past 60 years
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Hurricane Andrew in 1992 was a Category 5, look at this thing
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and it had gusts of 200 miles an hour, which at the time was the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history
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up until Katrina came along. For a long time, hurricanes didn't even have names
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and then they started naming them. Easy was the name of a hurricane
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That probably didn't scare people. Why would you name a hurricane Easy? You want people to get prepared, right
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Eloise, Opal, Wilma. Why do they name these after old ladies? They also count severe freezes as natural disasters in Florida
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because they wreak havoc on the state's citrus crops. In 1985, Florida saw the freeze of the century
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which damaged 90% of the state's oranges and grapefruits. Okay, grapefruits I'm okay with
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Those are gross. But oranges, those are a shame to lose. Anyways, Florida's gone through a lot over the years
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and will undoubtedly go through many, many, many, many, many more disasters
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over time. So stay on your toes, Florida. Oklahoma, Oklahoma. That's my Oklahoma accent
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This is a disaster magnet, at least according to the Washington Post. Fires, tornadoes
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and earthquakes all at the same time. That's terrible. A little over the top hyperbole
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but it gets so hot and dry in Western Oklahoma. They say don't even blink your eyeballs
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because the friction could start a fire here. Okay. That's just drama
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If it's not hot and dry, it's hailing here. Or it's windy
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An average of 55 twisters hits the Sooner State every year. Remember the tornado that hit Oklahoma City in 1999 with 300 mile-an-hour winds
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That killed 36 people, which is terrible. And since 2009, believe it or don't
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earthquakes have become a more common event in Oklahoma. These earthquakes have increased in number, frequency, and in magnitude
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And according to some people, they're man-made. Some of them were being caused by fracking, which is sort of like drilling for oil
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They actually had a 5.8 in 2016 in Oklahoma. Speaking of earthquakes, you can't talk about those without talking about California people
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Now, I grew up here, and as a kid, there were earthquakes all the time, usually in the middle of the night, and they were big
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big enough to scare you into running out into the front yard. Now, they've had some really big ones here
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the most memorable of which were in San Francisco. in 1906. That one pretty much wiped out like the whole city. And in 1989, which happened during the
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World Series. And I actually felt that one all the way down in my hometown of Highland, which is a
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long long way away everyone Now the ground been eerily quiet here California has been going through an earthquake drought in case you didn know Well if you live there you know because you getting ready for the big one What It coming people We due We due for an earthquake 10
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That's a song we used to sing as a kid growing up. But it's not just earthquakes. It's floods
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and dam breakings and freezing and biological warfare and droughts and fishing losses and a
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hurricane, and an other, and tsunamis, and of course fires. The state goes up in flames every
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fall because of sicko firebug arsonists. No wonder everyone's leaving the state. Actually
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there's way more reasons than that. Which state is the most natural disaster-y? Texas is. The Lone
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Star State has seen 358 natural disasters since 1953 alone, and 86 of them were major disaster
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declarations. I just don't even know. You can see the list here. I don't have to rattle them off for
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you. Moments Texans would love to forget go back to 1900 when the Galveston hurricane came on land
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and wiped out a ton of stuff. There was the 1953 Waco tornado, the 1950s Texas drought, the 2004
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Christmas-y blizzard, the 2009 Christmas blizzard. Why are all these blizzards on Christmas? The Black
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Sunday storm, and of course, hurricane after hurricane and tropical storms after tropical
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storms, including all the ones listed here. Wait, where's Hurricane Harvey? That's not even on here
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Okay, so there's even more hurricanes than this. Hurricane Harvey dumped 60 inches of rain in some
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parts of Texas, and some areas have not and will not ever recover from that. But despite all this
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Americans have decided Texas is the bee's knees as more people flock here than in any other state
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right now, and more people means more devastation when these natural disasters inevitably come this
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way. All right, that is Texas, everyone. And that is our list. That's a small rundown of the natural
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disasters which have made their mark on the U.S. and the states in which they happen most often
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If you live in one of these states, then you should probably leave right now because you are
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not safe, mister. And if you're in areas like Michigan or Montana or North Dakota where you
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hardly get any fires or earthquakes or tornadoes or hurricanes, you're lucky. You can live your
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quiet, peaceful life, knowing nothing is going to sneak up on you and make your life miserable
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or end it. In just about every pocket of this country, though, you're at risk for a disaster
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man-made or otherwise. And that is all, folks. If you live out on the East Coast, better watch out
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If you live out on the West Coast, it's a drought. Fires and drought
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If you live out in the Midwest, tornadoes come. If you live down in the Southeast, no more home
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No more home. Fire and rain. Damn hurricanes. Wind and the snow
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Where can you go? Nowhere. That's where. Stay safe, everyone. Let this be a reminder to prepare yourselves for natural disasters
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Have a plan and keep supplies on hand for the inevitable. Pack some stuff now and just leave it in a safe place just in case
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That way you're prepared. And don't worry about your belongings. Just grab the pets and the kids and run
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Hey guys, if you learned something new or you just like this video, make sure to like it
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And if you really like this video, make sure you hit that subscribe button
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so you get all of our videos about what it's like to live in different places in America
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Peace

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The Worst States for Natural Disasters

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