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