But it's a dry heat! (Flagstaff: home, earthquakes, camping)

[azsundevil99]

Found this article today: "Death map" shows heat a big hazard to Americans - Yahoo! News They don't specifically mention the humidity factor but do say that heat & drought is the #1 natural hazard in America. I think that if they had divided the country up by region the results would have been more accurate, since we all know that down here in the desert it's just a tad bit warmer than it is in Flagstaff!

[NytoPhx]

"California is relatively safe, they found."

What a pathetic study, that map doesnt even show heat in this region, and California is relatively safe. California has more natural disasters than anywhere else I can think of...mudslides, earthquakes, wildfires.

[joninaz]

Originally Posted by NytoPhx

"California is relatively safe, they found."

What a pathetic study, that map doesnt even show heat in this region, and California is relatively safe. California has more natural disasters than anywhere else I can think of...mudslides, earthquakes, wildfires.

Overall the U.S. has learned to adapt to natural disasters. Most of the major fires, hurricanes, etc. have relatively few deaths thanks to technology, better engineering, ability to respond, communicate, etc.

California gets nasty quakes, but they've spent decades creating structures that can withstand shaking. The nastiest quake in the past couple of decades was Northridge, where 90 or so died. A similar quake in Iran (2003) killed 30,000. The China quake last year took 70,000.

We even take heat for granted. If it hits 105 here, we crank up the AC. In France, they lost 15,000 in 2003 when it hit the same temp.
That summer, Europe lost 47,000 due to a heat wave. To us, that's crazy. Even if the AC at home breaks, we get in the car (with AC) and head out for Gelato .

[stilldirrty]

Originally Posted by NytoPhx

"California is relatively safe, they found."

What a pathetic study, that map doesnt even show heat in this region, and California is relatively safe. California has more natural disasters than anywhere else I can think of...mudslides, earthquakes, wildfires.

Umm. I think you forgot the S.E States with their hurricanes which cause more damage annually then all of the things that you've mentioned.

Besides. Wildfires are usually man-made disasters.

[TurcoLoco]

Originally Posted by stilldirrty

Umm. I think you forgot the S.E States with their hurricanes which cause more damage annually then all of the things that you've mentioned.

Besides. Wildfires are usually man-made disasters.

Speaking of man-made disasters, who's that woman in your profile pic?

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by NytoPhx

"California is relatively safe, they found."

What a pathetic study, that map doesnt even show heat in this region, and California is relatively safe. California has more natural disasters than anywhere else I can think of...mudslides, earthquakes, wildfires.

Heat related deaths are a rarity here. The usual victims when they do happen are homeless drug addicts, kids left in cars or an elderly person who wanders into the desert. It seems counter-intuitive that there should be few heat deaths in parts of the earth with the worst heat. I did some research into why some time back. The top theory I found has to do with sudden and significant change from normal leading to physiological stress as the culprit in places like France mentioned in the thread or Chicago several years back.

About the only natural disaster where I have heard of deaths here is flooding - people caught camping in washes in flash floods or driving into flooded road crossings - and an occasional lightning strike.

[stilldirrty]

Originally Posted by TurcoLoco

Speaking of man-made disasters, who's that woman in your profile pic?

I know isn't she hot????