HURRICANES ARE bad enough, but it turns out that Mississippi and Alabama also are among the most tornado-prone states in the country.
The numbers suggest that residents of both states ought to be as thoroughly prepared for disastrous tornadoes as they are for hurricanes.
The obvious difference is that reasonable predictions can be made about the path and strength of even a quickly forming hurricane or tropical storm, but tornadoes can form, strengthen, strike and dissipate in a matter of minutes.
The Daily Beast (www.thedailybeast.com) ranked 20 states on their tornado risk. The first, and worst, was Oklahoma, traditionally understood to be the Autobahn Expressway of the nation’s Tornado Alley.
But Mississippi ranks second, and Alabama comes in at No. 6. And The Daily Beast bases its ranking on tornado data dating back to 1950, not on the deadly tornado outbreaks in both states this year.
The data came from the archives of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Storm Prediction Center, analyzed by TornadoHistoryProject.com. Included are total number of tornadoes, tornadoes per square mile, intensity, fatalities and injuries.
One statistic that jumps out is this: Although Oklahoma has recorded 3,290 tornadoes since 1950 to Mississippi’s 1,790, Mississippi had one more fatality than Oklahoma, 443 to 442. That may be because on average, Mississippi tornadoes were stronger than Oklahoma’s, 1.15 on a 1-to-5 scale vs. 1.01 for the Sooner state. Ala-
bama’s tornadoes averaged 1.12 — also higher than Oklahoma’s.
Emergency planners in Mississippi may need to think about whether Mississippians are as aware of their tornado risk and well prepared for tornadoes compared with Oklahoma.
The same questions need to be asked in Alabama, even as cleanup continues after the catastrophic April 27 outbreak. Total fatalities since 1950 were 441 — just two fewer than Mississippi and one less than Oklahoma.
Yet Alabama saw several hundred more injuries than Mississippi — 6,808 compared with 6,223.
Over the decades, the National Weather Service has greatly improved its abilities to predict where deadly tornado outbreaks might occur, and it undoubtedly has saved lives by tracking storms and issuing warnings.
But the numbers show that no matter what part of either state one lives in, it’s just as important for individuals to have a tornado plan as it is for coastal residents to have a hurricane plan.
As the April 27 outbreak proved, there may be only enough time to take cover in a closet or under a mattress in the bathtub. But the seconds saved by not having to hesitate while deciding what to do may be lifesaving.