!: Where are the Safest Places to Live?

A recent front page article in The New York Times noted that "the devastation from Gulf Coast hurricanes is serving as a strong reminder that possible disasters could lay waste to cities and states across the country." Fortunately, environmental hazards are not uniformly distributed across America; many attractive locales are relatively safe.

Warren R. Bland, professor of geography at California State University, Northridge and author of Retire in Style: 60 Outstanding Places Across the USA and Canada, has prepared a list of ten U.S. places that are unusually safe in terms of potential exposure to five major environmental hazards. He considered degree of potential exposure to flooding due to hurricanes and tsunamis, as well as threats to life and property from earthquakes, tornadoes, radon gas, and air pollution. All ten places have a zero chance
of catastrophic flooding from hurricanes and tsunamis, and in all ten the dangers from earthquakes, tornadoes and air pollution are in the zero to low threat range. Only radon gas, an often overlooked threat to health, is so widespread across America that it poses a significant risk, if unabated, in five of the ten environmentally safest cities and towns.

Dr. Bland's top ten environmentally safe places are: Austin, Texas; Fredericksburg-Kerrville, Texas; Pinehurst-Southern Pines, North Carolina; Prescott, Arizona; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Eugene, Oregon; Ithaca, New York; Portland, Oregon; San Antonio, Texas; and Tucson, Arizona.