At a Glance
- A new survey has found Americans fear earthquakes more than any other type of natural disaster.
- This is despite the fact that earthquakes have only killed 70 people in the U.S. from 1990 to 2016.
- Several types of natural disasters, like tornadoes, average more deaths per year.
When it comes to natural disasters, Americans fear earthquakes more than anything else, according to a new survey.
The survey, compiled by Sperling's Best Places and obtained by the Wichita Eagle, found 21.1 percent of those polled said they're most fearful of earthquakes, with tornadoes coming in second place at 17.6 percent. Wildfires, hurricanes, flooding and droughts were also among the six types of natural disasters most feared by the 1,100 people surveyed.
"Earthquakes worry us for a number of reasons, thanks to their violent nature and the psychological terror of the earth moving beneath our feet," said a release from Sperling's Best Places. "They strike quickly and without warning. Storms, on the other hand, are tracked by meteorologists and can be prepared for or avoided by evacuation."
(MORE: Wild Tornado Myth Goes Viral, but It Never Happened)
But if you're going to truly frighten yourself over natural disasters, earthquakes are not the most likely to kill you, especially if you don't live in an earthquake zone. From 1990 to 2016, only 70 people died in the U.S. from earthquakes, the U.S. Geological Survey said. That pales in comparison to the 3,263 deaths from tropical cyclones from 1990 to 2017, according to data from the National Centers for Environmental Information.
In fact, tornadoes average as many deaths per year as earthquakes have killed in the last 27 years combined, NOAA 30-year averages showed. Flooding, which can sometimes be a slow-developing natural disaster, kills even more – 84 per year, according to 30-year averages dating back to 1987.
And while it isn't traditionally categorized with the more violent natural disasters, heat is far deadlier than all other types of extreme weather, killing an average of 131 Americans each year.
Only three earthquakes in U.S. history have official death tolls higher than that.
