• Revenue Cycle Management
  • COVID-19
  • Reimbursement
  • Diabetes Awareness Month
  • Risk Management
  • Patient Retention
  • Staffing
  • Medical Economics® 100th Anniversary
  • Coding and documentation
  • Business of Endocrinology
  • Telehealth
  • Physicians Financial News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Cardiovascular Clinical Consult
  • Locum Tenens, brought to you by LocumLife®
  • Weight Management
  • Business of Women's Health
  • Practice Efficiency
  • Finance and Wealth
  • EHRs
  • Remote Patient Monitoring
  • Sponsored Webinars
  • Medical Technology
  • Billing and collections
  • Acute Pain Management
  • Exclusive Content
  • Value-based Care
  • Business of Pediatrics
  • Concierge Medicine 2.0 by Castle Connolly Private Health Partners
  • Practice Growth
  • Concierge Medicine
  • Business of Cardiology
  • Implementing the Topcon Ocular Telehealth Platform
  • Malpractice
  • Influenza
  • Sexual Health
  • Chronic Conditions
  • Technology
  • Legal and Policy
  • Money
  • Opinion
  • Vaccines
  • Practice Management
  • Patient Relations
  • Careers

The 12 States with the Most Dangerous Weather

Article

The start of the holiday travel season came with its share of ice storms and winter weather. These 12 states have the most dangerous weather, according to government statistics.

Thanksgiving ushered in the holiday travel season, and already those hitting the road had to deal with hazardous weather. Oklahoma, for one, got blasted with ice storms and flooding. The storm caused tens of thousands to lose power, but fortunately no loss of life was reported.

With winter just around the corner and more holiday travel in most peoples’ near future, we’ve decided to take a look at the most dangerous states when it comes to hazardous weather.

The data come from the National Weather Service’s Office of Services and the National Climatic Data Center. They cover fatalities, injuries, and damage directly attributed to weather. Thus, a car accident that may have occurred during a storm wouldn’t necessarily make this list, unless weather was determined to be a chief cause.

Overall, 384 people died last year as a result of hazardous weather. Another 2,203 were injured because of hazardous weather. Rip currents (54) and hazardous wind (54) caused the most fatalities in 2014, although a 10-year average shows extreme heat and tornadoes usually are the most deadly weather phenomena, killing 124 people and 110 people per year, respectively.

What follows are the 12 states with the most hazardous weather. Each state capsule includes statistics from 2014 on weather-related injuries, fatalities, property damage, and crop damage. We’ve chosen to rank the states based on the number of injuries, since in most states the number of fatalities is too small to be a good indicator.

Oklahoma

Injuries: 41

Fatalities: 2

Property Damage: $9.8 million

Crop Damage: $0

Ohio

11. Ohio

Injuries: 42

Fatalities: 1

Property Damage: $97 million

Crop Damage: $80,000

North Carolina

10. North Carolina

Injuries: 43

Fatalities: 9

Property Damage: $54.5 million

Crop Damage: $120,000

9. Virginia

Injuries: 49

Fatalities: 7

Property Damage: $7.4 million

Crop Damage: $200,000

Florida

8. Florida

Injuries: 51

Fatalities: 20

Property Damage: $210.24 million

Crop Damage: $0

Texas

7. Texas

Injuries: 58

Fatalities: 10

Property Damage: $1 billion

Crop Damage: $124.3 million

Alabama

6. Alabama

Injuries: 84

Fatalities: 10

Property Damage: $38.2 million

Crop Damage: $0

California

5. California

Injuries: 132

Fatalities: 20

Property Damage: $162.8 million

Crop Damage: $1.5 billion

Mississippi

4. Mississippi

Injuries: 211

Fatalities: 20

Property Damage: $212.1 million

Crop Damage: $10.2 million

Arkansas

3. Arkansas

Injuries: 225

Fatalities: 23

Property Damage: $266.33 million

Crop Damage: $14.4 million

New York

2. New York

Injuries: 374

Fatalities: 8

Property Damage: $93.3 million

Crop Damage: $130,000

New Jersey

1. New Jersey

Injuries: 460

Fatalities: 5

Property Damage: $13.8 million

Crop Damage: $10,000

Related Videos
Victor J. Dzau, MD, gives expert advice
Victor J. Dzau, MD, gives expert advice