10 texas cities safest from severe weather (Houston, Dallas: renting, insurance, house)

[DrD76]

Any truth in this listing?
https://homeownersinsurance.com/blog...ere-weather-2/
DrD

[CptnRn]

Victoria has 0 risk of flooding. I don't believe that, a lot of the west side of town near the Guadalupe River is flood prone. A quick web search produced this from 10 hours ago.

http://www.google.org/publicalerts/a...=US&source=web
Posted 10 hours ago
The Flood Warning continues for the following River in Texas. Guadalupe River at Victoria affecting Victoria County Guadalupe River near Bloomington affecting Calhoun, Refugio and Victoria counties.
Recent rainfall over the area will keep the aforementioned River above flood stage for the next several days.
The Flood Warning continues for the Guadalupe River at Victoria.

• Until Further Notice, or until the warning is cancelled.
• At 9:15 am Wednesday the stage was 27.7 feet.
• Moderate flooding is occurring and major flooding is forecast.
• Flood stage is 21.0 feet.
• Forecast: The river will continue rising to near 29.8 feet Friday evening then begin a slow fall.
• At 29.8 feet, water starts to flood homes at the west end of Convent Street near the old landfill. The lowest homes in the Greens addition subdivision in Victoria, the City Park, much of the golf course, including the golf cart sheds, and the zoo flood. A fishing resort below Highway 35 near Tivoli floods, and many homes above Highway 35 near Tivoli are surrounded by flow several hundred yards wide. Portions of Riverside camp grounds in Tivoli approaching Highway 59 flood.

Below are the latest River stages and stage forecasts: fld Latest forecast 6 am lst location stg stg Day Time Thu Fri Sat Sun Mon Guadalupe River Victoria 21 27.7 Wed 09 am 28.5 29.5 29.7 29.4 28.6.

That makes the rest of that list suspect in my opinion.

[Westerntraveler]

I think Midland is pretty safe from severe weather in most cases.We don't get much heavy rainfall because the storms tend to go around us and come together again by Big Spring.It seems like Odessa gets hit harder by rain more often than us.Hail storms tend to be minor but we have been known to have severe hail storms in rare circumstances.We have had at least 2 to 3 tornado watches this spring in the Tall City.

[DrD76]

Thank you CptnRn and Westerntraveler.
We just moved to TX (renting in Katy, a suburb in Houston) from AZ, and, honestly, were a bit surprised by the flooding. Since I need access to a major airport, my two choices were Houston or Dallas.
From the article I quoted, it appears as if the only city in the top 10 list that is close to a major airport is Rockwall (3rd in the list) ... about 45 mins from DFW... which is OK for my twice a week commute.
Just wondering if this list is somewhat accurate... i.e. is Rockwall less prone to severe weather such as floods and tornadoes and hurricanes... etc...
Appreciate any feedback.
Thank you.
DrD

[Westerntraveler]

Originally Posted by DrD76

Thank you CptnRn and Westerntraveler.
We just moved to TX (renting in Katy, a suburb in Houston) from AZ, and, honestly, were a bit surprised by the flooding. Since I need access to a major airport, my two choices were Houston or Dallas.
From the article I quoted, it appears as if the only city in the top 10 list that is close to a major airport is Rockwall (3rd in the list) ... about 45 mins from DFW... which is OK for my twice a week commute.
Just wondering if this list is somewhat accurate... i.e. is Rockwall less prone to severe weather such as floods and tornadoes and hurricanes... etc...
Appreciate any feedback.
Thank you.
DrD

Anytime. Rockwall is safe from hurricanes.DFW is known for serious hail storms.The Metroplex is also in tornado alley.I would rather live in a hurricane area since they give you so much more notice in advance compared to tornadoes.It floods in DFW also.

[blkgiraffe]

It says Waco has 0 risk of tornadoes........

[Mark Senior]

Originally Posted by blkgiraffe

It says Waco has 0 risk of tornadoes........

I guess it ignored the deadly tornado in Waco in 1953, I think the worst in Texas History. No place in Texas has Zero, lol

[Matthew Duck]

Originally Posted by blkgiraffe

It says Waco has 0 risk of tornadoes........

Originally Posted by Mark Senior

I guess it ignored the deadly tornado in Waco in 1953, I think the worst in Texas History. No place in Texas has Zero, lol

That's the #1 reason this list is flawed!

[biscuitmom]

My son was born and lived in Texas (DFW and Austin areas) for 27 years, never saw a tornado. Then moved to Brooklyn NY and saw 2, in 2007 and 2012. Both times he actually saw the funnels and the second caused a good deal of property damage in his neighborhood.
He's also been through an earthquake and a hurricane there, both of which were brand-new experiences for him. The hurricane caused severe flooding, another new experience.

In my 65+ years of living in OK and TX, I've never seen a funnel, have "taken shelter" maybe a dozen times. I don't recall ever hearing of a tornado in TX that struck without any warning. In only 2 cases that I recall (Wichita Falls 1979; Jarrell 1997) the tornadoes were massive enough to result in fatalities and/or serious injuries among those who took shelter.

Point is, tornadoes can and do occur throughout the US. But they're far far down the list of weather-related events that might kill you. Lightning, floods, blizzards, and heat waves are more deadly. Earthquakes too, if you go take a global perspective. And unlike weather events, earthquakes give no warning!

[KathrynAragon]

Originally Posted by biscuitmom

My son was born and lived in Texas (DFW and Austin areas) for 27 years, never saw a tornado. Then moved to Brooklyn NY and saw 2, in 2007 and 2012. Both times he actually saw the funnels and the second caused a good deal of property damage in his neighborhood.
He's also been through an earthquake and a hurricane there, both of which were brand-new experiences for him. The hurricane caused severe flooding, another new experience.

In my 65+ years of living in OK and TX, I've never seen a funnel, have "taken shelter" maybe a dozen times. I don't recall ever hearing of a tornado in TX that struck without any warning. In only 2 cases that I recall (Wichita Falls 1979; Jarrell 1997) the tornadoes were massive enough to result in fatalities and/or serious injuries among those who took shelter.

Point is, tornadoes can and do occur throughout the US. But they're far far down the list of weather-related events that might kill you. Lightning, floods, blizzards, and heat waves are more deadly. Earthquakes too, if you go take a global perspective. And unlike weather events, earthquakes give no warning!

Van, Texas was just hit by a tornado a couple of weeks ago that came with no warning and killed two people, and injured many (43 admitted to the hospital, I believe) and destroyed 1/3 of the town. This is twenty minutes from my house. The tornado sirens didn't even go off till after the tornado struck. I think they were under a tornado WATCH - like this entire area has been off and on for weeks now.

I have lived in Texas for over twenty years. I have had a tornado damage the roof of my house as well as do millions (yes, millions) of dollars of damage to Fort Hood when I lived there in the 1990s. My family and I had to take shelter in the bathroom while the massive funnel cloud went right over our house.

Two years ago, we had to take shelter again (I don't take shelter till the winds get alarming - as in throwing lawn furniture around or bending trees down to the ground) as a series of tornadoes went through our area. This was the same system that moved on to Alabama and killed several people.

Here is an interesting list from the NOAA. Texas averages 137 tornadoes a year, with an average of 8 deaths per year, and a tornado average of five tornadoes per 10,000 square miles. New York, to use your example has an average of five tornadoes per year, an average of zero deaths from those per year, and an average of 1 tornado per 10,000 square miles.

Average number of tornadoes and average deaths per year by state

Only five states have more tornadoes per 10,000 square miles than Texas. Texas has BY FAR more actual tornadoes in the state than any other state (but we're a big state). The only state with more deaths each year (on average) from tornadoes (also a state with more tornados per mile) is Mississippi.