Death map

United States Death Map Revealed:

A map of natural hazard mortality in the United States has been produced. The map gives a county-level representation of the likelihood of dying as the result of natural events such as floods, earthquakes or extreme weather.

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Hazard mortality is most prominent in the South, where most people were killed by various severe weather hazards and tornadoes. Other areas of elevated risk are the northern Great Plains Region where heat and drought were the biggest killers and in the mountain west with winter weather and flooding deaths. The south central US is also a dangerous area, with floods and tornadoes posing the greatest threat.

Here's the map:

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Is my mind playing tricks with me - doesn't this correlate very well with both the election results and with degree of religiosity?

On that second one, I can't help but wonder about cause and effect: do people tend to be religious in areas with high risks, or are the deities trying to punish the people in the religious areas for not "doin' it right"?

So -- it seems like there's some overlap between "deaths by act of God" and "strong belief that the phrase 'acts of God' should be read literally"?

Probably not much to argue for causation, but it seems seems to me that a more visibly powerful (and chaotic) environment might be a factor in strong religious belief.

Huh? I would expect all of CA to be red! Isn't it just about ready (in geologic time anyway) to fall into the ocean?

I am surprised that heat/drought killed the most. I hope that number is decreasing, not rising, because there is technology readily available to prevent those deaths.

Really surprised to see California at the lowest risk for natural disaster-related death.

Utah = death country.

By Jason Malloy (not verified) on 17 Dec 2008 #permalink

I suspect Utah scores the way it does because most of the population lives in that small blue strip. The rest of the state is mostly retirees, miners, and certain kinds of farmers. i.e. folks prone to a higher rate of death. And what's left over is pretty desolate with a long hike and then drive to reach a hospital and you're probably going to have to rescue yourself. I wonder if flash floods have much to do with it. A lot of those red areas are also places where it's fun to go canyoneering, climbing, kayaking, or 4 wheeling all leading to potential death. (My business partner was in a Hummer that got caught in a flash flood while driving down a popular road one day.)

I wish you could drill down and see what's killing folks.