Is Alabama the most dangerous state for weather?
Did 2011 storms skew the results?
The website 24/7 Wall Street lists the states with them most weather-related deaths, and Alabama is at the top of the list:
“1. Alabama
> 5-year fatality rate: 61.1 (per million residents)
>Total fatalities 2011-2015: 295
>Total damage 2011-2015: $4.4 billion
>Poverty rate: 18.9%
Roughly 85% of all weather-related fatalities in Alabama in the last half decade occurred in 2011. That year, the state was the hardest hit by the weather event dubbed “The Tornado Super Outbreak of 2011.” In a four-day period in late April that year, tornadoes killed more than 230 people and injured thousands in Alabama.
Partially because they have fewer resources to prepare for disastrous weather conditions, people living in poverty are more likely to be killed by extreme weather. In Alabama, a state with the fifth highest poverty rate in the country, more people have died due to weather in the last five years than in any other state.”
Numbers are numbers, but we might mention the terrible tornado outbreak of 2011, which is included in this five year “study”…it boosted Alabama’s numbers, putting us in first place.
HERE is the full 24/7 Wall Street story.
