Researchers have released a map showing where in the US you are most likely to die in a natural disaster. Such acts of God do not, of course, smite the country evenly.

The survey, published in the International Journal of Health Geographics yesterday, puts the worst mortality statistics in the South, thanks to tornadoes and other deadly weather. Heat waves and droughts made the northern Great Plains another danger zone.

Heat and drought were, in fact, the country’s biggest killers, accounting for 19.6% of all hazard deaths in 1970-2004. Close behind were other forms of severe weather – thunderstorms, blizzards, and such like.

“What is noteworthy here is that over time, highly destructive, highly publicized, often catastrophic singular events such as hurricanes and earthquakes are responsible for relatively few deaths when compared to the more frequent, less catastrophic events such as heat waves and severe weather,” says study co-author Susan Cutter (press release).

The paper authors conclude that it’s unsurprising to find “greater risk of death along the hurricane coasts, in the interior west, and in the South – all areas prone to natural hazards as well as significant population growth and expansion throughout the study period”. However the results point to hazard hot spots deserving of more detailed study and perhaps better emergency plans.

This would seem rather more useful when put together with data on likely regional impacts of climate change.

Image: International Journal of Health Geographics