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Have you ever been through a natural disaster?
These catastrophic events can vary depending on strength and location. For example, midwesterners do not experience hurricanes like people living in coastal regions, and people living in coastal regions do not experience tornados like midwesterners. Natural disasters each have their own scale to measure the strength in which they impact an area. These scales allow us to prepare beforehand, and evaluate a disaster after it strikes.
Earthquakes for example, are measured by the Richter Scale. This scale measures the energy level of the earthquake from one to ten with ten being the strongest possible quake. Volcanic eruptions, fires, floods, heat waves, tsunamis, tornados, blizzards, and hurricanes all have similarly ranking scales with different names and measurements.
According to a list compiled by 24/7 Wall St. the worst natural disaster to happen in the history of California was the San Fransisco Earthquake of 1906. 3,000 people died as a result of this quake.
Here's what 24/7 Wall St. had to say about compiling the data to discover the worst natural disasters to occur in American history:
"24/7 Wall St. reviewed government sources on the weather event in each state’s history that caused the highest number of fatalities to determine the worst natural disaster in every state. Thanks to their geography and location, some states have not faced any mass-casualty weather events. Many other parts of the country have been less fortunate, experiencing massive storms and floods that have claimed the lives of hundreds or even thousands of Americans."
For a continued list of the worst natural disasters to occur in each state visit 247wallst.com.