Top Ohio wind-related catastrophes
- 2008 Hurricane Ike, $1.33 billion
- 1974 Xenia tornado, $1.06 billion
- June 28-July 2, 2012 wind storms, $845 million
- May 20-26, 2011 wind storm, $329 million
- Oct. 29-30, 2012 Superstorm Sandy, $292 million
Source: Ohio Insurance Institute
Dayton may not have beaches or mountain ranges, but the Gem City does have one thing going for itself - safety from natural disasters, and we are hoping even pestilence.
Dayton, Akron and Cleveland made Trulia.com’s top 10 list of U.S. cities least likely to be destroyed by a natural disaster.
Yippee!!
According to the real estate website, this means we are unlikely to be rocked by earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires or tornadoes.
Thanks to the Miami Conservancy District, established after the Great Flood here in 1913, we are even good against flooding.
Trulia used data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Forest Service and FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program, to compile its list related to large housing markets.
It is not clear if they counted Xenia, which was slammed in 1974 by one of the deadliest tornadoes in American History, in the equations. That city also had an F4 tornado in 2000 that destroyed hundreds of homes.
But back to the list. Cleveland landed in second place behind Syracuse, New York. Akron landed in third place and didn’t even crush a witch (reference to tornadoes and the Wicked Witch and her dastardly sister). Dayton came in sixth place ahead of Allentown, Pennsylvania-New Jersey.
I hope city officials are listening.
The fact that we will unlikely blow away or be hit by anything is a great marketing tool.
I can see the tourism slogans now, but this is one they’d be best to run through the sensitivity police.
Below are just seven that may make you say “too soon.”
1) Come to Dayton: nothing shakes here, but the twerker.
2) Only the planes send us flying
3) Dayton: We are red hot, but not because we have wildfires.
4) Dayton, where bathtubs are for bathing and moonshine for drinking.
5) Horrific storm. No, thank you. Basements are for laundry and useless item storage.
6) Welcome to Dayton! No tsunami, no problem.
7) Flat, proud and relatively calamity-free in Dayton, Ohio, since 1913.
Contact this columnist at arobinson@DaytonDailyNews.com or Twitter.com/DDNSmartMouth
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