Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Milwaukee safest from natural disasters?

Another one of those city rankings has come out, and this one ranks how safe/dangerous the top 50 metro areas in the nation are. Milwaukee was tied for first amongst safe cities. I won't disagree with them about Milwaukee being pretty safe, unless you count sewage spills natural disaster. But number one? That's just plain odd. This is a city that was hit by a small tornado in March just 6 years ago. For those readers who aren't familiar with Wisconsin, we do get our share of tornados, but not in March! (And no, there is no such thing as a snownado). One would think that the tornado risk and maybe flood risk would drop it down in the top ten a little. I mean, look at Chicago. It is an hour and a half drive down the lakeshore, and it is 12th. An hour and a half makes a diference of 11 spots?

I just find the list slightly odd. There is the comparison above between Milwaukee and Chicago. Then there is Cleveland and Columbus. Coulmbus is a little further south of Cleveland than Chicago is from Milwaukee, but just a little. Cleveland is #3, and Columbus is waayyy down at #39. I hate to say it, but Lake Michigan and Lake Erie do not dappen thunderstorms that much. Why do a couple of ticks in change of latitude make that much difference?

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