Article
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Fatalities Caused by Hydrometeorological Disasters in Texas
Version 1
: Received: 20 April 2018 / Approved: 24 April 2018 / Online: 24 April 2018 (08:51:45 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Paul, S.H.; Sharif, H.O.; Crawford, A.M. Fatalities Caused by Hydrometeorological Disasters in Texas. Geosciences 2018, 8, 186. Paul, S.H.; Sharif, H.O.; Crawford, A.M. Fatalities Caused by Hydrometeorological Disasters in Texas. Geosciences 2018, 8, 186.
Abstract
Texas ranks first in number of natural hazard fatalities in the United States (U.S.). Based on data culled from the National Climatic Data Center databases from 1959 to 2016, the number of hydrometeorological fatalities in Texas have increased over the 58-year study period, but the per capita fatalities have significantly decreased. Spatial review found that flooding is the predominant hydrometeorological disaster in a majority of the Texas counties located in “Flash Flood Alley” and accounts for 43% of all hydrometeorological fatalities in the state. Flooding fatalities are highest on “Transportation Routes” followed by heat fatalities in “Permanent Residences”. Seasonal and monthly stratification identifies Spring and Summer as the deadliest seasons, with the month of May registering the highest number of total fatalities dominated by flooding and tornado fatalities. Demographic trends of hydrometeorological disaster fatalities indicated that approximately twice as many male fatalities occurred during the study period than female fatalities, but with decreasing gender disparity over time. Adults are the highest fatality risk group overall, children most at risk to die in flooding, and the elderly at greatest risk of heat-related death.
Keywords
natural hazards; weather disasters; hydrometeorological fatalities; flooding; tornadoes; extreme temperatures
Subject
Engineering, Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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