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Category: Project

Description: Risk factors for tornado casualties are well known. Less understood is how and to what degree these factors, after controlling for strength and the number of people affected, vary over space and time. Here we fit models to casualty counts from all casualty-producing tornadoes during the period 1995-2016 in order to quantify the interactions between population and energy on casualty (deaths plus injuries) rates. Results show that the more populated areas of the Mid South are substantially and significantly more vulnerable to casualties than elsewhere in the country. In this region casualty rates are significantly higher on the weekend. Night and day casualty rates are similar regardless of where the tornadoes occur. States with a high percentage of older people (65+) tend to have greater vulnerability perhaps related to less agility and fewer communication options.